If the government is ready to keep its promises to the people, then there is need for urgency in both words and actions. This is actually not the time for us to appoint politicians to high office but a time to assemble problem solvers; it is not the time to reward political loyalists but a time to really provide good governance to the general public…

More than thirty days ago, the president shared his lofty dream of lifting one hundred million Nigerians out of poverty, but still nothing on ground seems to support such flamboyant aspiration.

I’m told that there is intense lobbying going on in the Aso Villa, the president’s current residence, as people who claimed to have worked tooth and nail for the All Progressives Congress (APC) want to be settled with what many often refer to as “plum jobs” or “juicy appointments” – terms Nigerians use to describe desirable positions or lucrative government appointments, which most times means opportunities to amass wealth for the occupiers of the positions.

As such, it’s not really the lack of interest that is delaying the all-important ministerial list from being unveiled, but the president’s inability to pick from a very long list of potential candidates. Curriculum vitaes aren’t needed so much, as these appointments don’t have much to do with competence or experience, and oftentimes we see ministers appointed not in line with their positions of core competence or even their fields of study. Although, I have learnt through studies the latter that doesn’t really matter as long as one is able to effectively manage whatever role given, if educated to a certain level, and s/he is able to assemble a good team.

The president of South Africa, Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa formed his cabinet three days after being sworn-in recently – showing the president as ready to hit the ground running. As far as governance is concerned, Nigeria has lost more than thirty good days doing nothing; this is not acceptable for a country that is surviving on life support.

If the government is ready to keep its promises to the people, then there is need for urgency in both words and actions. This is actually not the time for us to appoint politicians to high office but a time to assemble problem solvers; it is not the time to reward political loyalists but a time to really provide good governance to the general public, or possibly both.

Solving the problems of one hundred million people at once may not be realistic, but why not start with a hundred people, or ten thousand people or even one hundred thousand people? This is only going to be possible if the government develops problem-solving kits, and this will not be about handing down some paltry sums of money to the people or sharing out state resources, but by identifying actual wealth creation ideas, utilising approaches that makes the people productive. Value addition is key to such approaches.

I can easily mention a few of these: Take housing, for instance, the government can create thousands of jobs in the sector by recruiting a reasonable amount of young people to embark on mass housing schemes, which would address the huge housing gap and deficit, with the investment bringing in huge returns. All that is needed is the willingness to execute this and transparency in award of contracts involved.

…I doubt if we can truly lift one hundred people out of poverty, talk less of one hundred million people. The country has the potentials to do this but the leaders lack the capacity, the political will and commitment to translate the potentials to real life achievements.

If the government wishes to build two thousand housing units in a state, with a minimum of ten workers per unit for at least six months, this would create at least twenty thousand jobs per location. Imagine this being done in at least twenty cities, and while this is ongoing, if the government engages a number of multinational corporations and insists on local production, this would create millions of job along the value chain, whilst agricultural produce could become raw materials for production companies. Hence, there will be huge off-takers, with farming becoming even more rewarding and attractive.

But if governance is reduced to politics and the sharing of political appointments, I doubt if such important ideas would ever make it to the top of the agenda. The ferocity with which people want to share of the ‘national cake’ makes them blind to the real essence of governance, which actually means baking the cake for the benefit of all the citizens.

Here in my country, appointments are not necessarily given out with any expectation, but just as a reward for contributions during elections. And once a person is so recognised, s/he throws a party, his/her house becomes a beehive of activities, his/her phones ring continuously as a sign of importance, s/he becomes a VIP, and suddenly everyone around him/her begin to print their own complementary cards, as it’s their turn to chop.

With this sort of mindset, I doubt if we can truly lift one hundred people out of poverty, talk less of one hundred million people. The country has the potentials to do this but the leaders lack the capacity, the political will and commitment to translate the potentials to real life achievements.

The president was elected on March 23 and was returned as winner on March 26 – that was more than two month before his inauguration. If he could not pencil down potentials cabinet ministers in that period, then he has set his foot in the wrong direction, more than thirty days into his administration. We can almost predict what the next three years would be like, before another round of campaigns officially kick off.

When we genuinely put our house in order as a country, the world would celebrate Nigeria. I pray we dont wake up when it’s already too late.

Mathias Baba Tsado is a former presidential aspirant and the convener of Hope Platform Initiative.