By CLIFFORD NDUJIHE

IN the next couple of hours, 2012, the year of multiple expectations will be ushered in and 2011 will be consigned to the dustbin of history. However, the same cannot be said of the avalanche of unresolved, partly resolved and yet to be articulated problems that 2011 left in its trail.

In Nigeria, such problems include rising wave of insecurity exacerbated by the menace of Boko Haram Sect, looming social unrest arising from planned removal of fuel subsidy, worsening incidence of poverty, deteriorating power supply, decaying infrastructure such as roads and rot in the education sector brought to the fore by the ongoing industrial action embarked by university teachers on the banner of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Other challenges that will be carried over into 2012 include constitutional amendment and President Goodluck Jonathan’s controversial move for a seven-year single term presidency and governorship, the 2012 budget and shallow-rooted efforts to cut high cost of governance, and governorship elections in Cross River, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Sokoto and Edo states.

Heartaches are also expected from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) proposed cash less economy, which will begin tomorrow in Lagos and the crisis-plagued new drivers’ licence and vehicle plate numbers introduced by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).

Insecurity and Boko Haram

Since its bold emergence on the political scene in 2009, the Islamic Boko Haram has remained a torn on the flesh of the various security agencies in the country. In its murderous activities, the sect has faced little or challenge from the security agencies.

It is therefore not surprising that in over 30 bomb attacks in several parts of Northern Nigeria on churches, security buildings such as Army barracks, Police stations, Police Headquarter, and Abuja, United Nations building, Abuja among others, Boko Haram has killed about 1700 persons and destroyed property worth billions of Naira.

The group’s series of co-ordinated attacks in three states on December 25 left the nation crying following the death of about 40 citizens and injuring of several others.

In all these, the Sect beat the nation’s security arrangement hands down. With Boko Haram threatening more attacks amid the government’s palpable incapacity to stem the tide and Christian leaders’ warning that they would defend

Ruined cars caused by bomb explosion at the Nigerian Police Headquarters in Abuja

themselves in the event of another attack, there are fears that 2012 might become another bloody year. If improperly handled, there are fears that the issue could degenerate into a religious war with uncertain implications for the continued unity of the country.

Fuel subsidy removal

One issue that has dominated discourse in the polity since October 4, 2011 is the Federal Government’s planned removal of fuel subsidy beginning from next year, which is less than 16 hours away.

The proposed policy has stoked the fire of controversy so much that the organised labour led by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and some prominent Nigerians have vowed to resist the move via street protests. Those who have opposed removal of fuel subsidy include the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and eminent citizens like Prof Ben Nwabueze (SAN), Alhaji Balarabe Musa and Senator Gbenga Ashafa, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), Mr. Femi Falana, Mr Ben Murray-Bruce and Dr. Olopade Agoro among others.

Their reasons for the opposition include: government has failed to fix the nation’s refineries or build new ones to refine crude oil at home after spending huge sums of money on turnaround maintenance (TAM) of the refineries in the last 10 years; an oil cabal that benefits from the subsidy has not been dealt with; those who collected money and failed to fix the refineries have not been prosecuted; and removing subsidy will place more burdens on the already impoverished Nigerians, 70 per cent of whom live on the poverty line.

Others include failure of the government to ensure stable power supply, fix the roads, adequately fund education, healthcare, deliver on past promises, combat corruption, drastically cut the cost of governance and recurrent expenditure, which consume 74 per cent of annual budgets.

They also complain that the government was not checking wastage in governance and could not convince then on why Nigerians must pay heavily for a resource they were richly blessed with.

However, the government has insisted on forging ahead with removal of fuel subsidy because it could no longer continue to borrow money to fund the subsidy and recurrent budget. It promised that n1.12 trillion savings from fuel subsidy would be channeled into critical sectors like agriculture, roads and infrastructure, ICT, healthcare and human capacity development.

Given the stand-off between government and opponents of the proposed policy, it is to be seen how the issue would be tackled in the coming weeks.

Constitutional amendment

Another matter that will be on the front burner in 2012 is constitution amendment. The National Assembly has raised a committee to handle the exercise. Some issues slated for amendment include demands for more states at a time two-thirds of the 36 states are not economically viable, revenue allocation and derivation formula, state police, etc.

While set the template for the exercise last year, Senate President David Mark raised questions that should be answered.

He asked: “Should we allow State Police? Will it enhance policing duties and reduce criminality in the country? Is the current revenue formula equitable? Will a change in favour of the states enhance the deliverables to the people? Should power distribution be on the Exclusive Legislative List? Shouldn’t states that invest in power generation be allowed to distribute?

Is it necessary to create new states? Will it bring government nearer to the people and address cries of marginalisation? How effective are the local governments? Should they be made to function independently of the States? Is the Joint State/Local Governments account still necessary?”

Answers to these questions would of course come from Nigerians when the exercise takes off in 2012 when federal legislators return from their Christmas and New Year break.

Apart from the National Assembly, President Goodluck Jonathan also raised a 21-man presidential constitution review committee led by Justice Alfa Belgore to articulate views on refashioning a new constitution for the country with inputs from past exercises.

However, a section of the polity have opposed the amendment efforts, saying that what the country needed was a new constitution, not amendment. The new year will offer another opportunity to dissect the matter further.

Cash-less economy

President Jonathan

A major hurdle that Nigerians especially those living in Lagos will face as from tomorrow is the CBN cash-less economy policy. The apex bank will begin running a pilot programme of the policy on January 1, 2012 in Lagos. This will be followed by Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano and Aba. According to the apex bank, the scheme will also be extended to other parts of the country at a date to be determined by the Bankers’ Committee.

According to the policy, people are encouraged to embrace electronic banking and reduce carrying of raw cash to the barest minimum. How? By paying for goods and services through electronic transfer. For those, who will choose to remain conservative and refuse to migrate, there is a heavy fine to dealing in cash.

The policy sets a limit of cash withdrawal of N150, 000 for the individual and N1 million for corporate bodies. Any individual who withdraws more than the limit will pay N100 per additional N1000 and for corporate bodies, it is N200 per thousand.

Already, apprehensions are being expressed in most quarters whether the banks and the citizenry, especially business men are ready for the strictures this policy entails.

ASUU strike

The recurring paralysis in the nation’s education system especially at the tertiary will remain on the front burner in 2012. University teachers in public institutions have been on strike since December 4 over the government’s failure to implement agreements it freely signed with ASUU in 2009. Negotiations between the teachers and government have been deadlocked with students and their parents being at the receiving end.

Other problems

In 2012, the citizenry will also be on the look out for effective implementation of the budget, solutions to epileptic power supply in the country, decaying infrastructure especially road network, which has caused many avoidable deaths including the 78 persons that died between December 20 and 25 across the country, according to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). There is also the problematic new drivers’ licence and vehicle plate numbers.

How the government and policy makers handle these challenges among others would go a long way in determining the fortunes or misfortunes the citizenry would reap in 2012.