Former Minister of Finance, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu says ‘enormous’ is a huge understatement for the challenges that President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor will face.
Speaking in an interview with Saturday Sun, the four-time minister stated that the next government would find it difficult knowing where to begin to confront the challenges.
“It may seem too optimistic to even venture into the question of the challenges a new government will face if 2023 happens as planned. ‘Enormous’ is a huge understatement. Where does a new administration start to gather all the pieces to even determine the ordering of plausible solutions? Are you talking about the security, the administration, particularly, the various arms of public administration, the entire economy, its basic interrelated components, including entire network of the financial system?
Read Also: Lagos flood sweeps away Lexus, Toyota vehicles, 2 persons missing
“It’s easy to disaggregate and re-aggregate to these three broad areas, but it’s with the breakdown of these broad problem areas that the sheer enormity of our accumulation of unsolved problems loom large, seemingly intractable and devoid of sustenance solutions. There can be no exhaustive listing. Every subject area requires a fresh start and bringing a fresh out- of-the- box thinking and imagination, qualitative and quantitative, systems, manpower, financing, and a sense of irreversible sustainability.”
Kalu said that to confront the challenges, the next president must pick a team that not only knows its stuff, politically and professionally in the relevant areas, but can carry along the huge expectations of the masses and reference stakeholders, workers, teachers, professionals (lawyers, engineers, doctors, etc.).
“From 2023, the government at all the three levels and their parastatals must focus on getting it right away from focus on how to entrench new vested interests.
“Yes, easier to say than keeping to the line as delineated. The entire security apparatchik needs to be adroitly reengineered for across the board efficiency and fair representation with the accent on an objectively determined merit basis. The overriding objective should be improvement in security for Nigerians and all who reside within our borders, in line with international law and norms.
“The administration – federal, state and local will need to be reinvented, along with their affiliated and sprawling parastatals with new ground rules, inviolate code of conduct based on the tested standards from the past as required by present circumstances. It’s fairly agreed that just about all of what existed is in shambles.
“The economy and related financial systems, monetary, exchange, and credit management and fiduciary issues require a keen professional restructuring for growth and market-propelled management.
“This is a sore and critical sector that cannot be allowed to fester from day one of the new administration. A lot more detail will be required to reach the minutest micro level issues enumerated in a broad outline here,” Kalu noted.