By Sunny Ikhioya

AT this time of the year, the practice is to make resolutions on how to move forward in the new year, habit to reinforce and that to discarded. It is like a goal setting process, only that, in this instance the decisions are made under atmospheres of feasting and wining, so they barely last beyond the first or second week of the new year.

But, mine is not a resolution because the tools to accomplish them are not in my hands, they are in the realms of those in position of authority, beginning with the President of this country and his team. Mine is in the form of a wish for what the so much sought after change should be like this year 2016, a wish that majority of Nigerians have borne in their hearts since the country attained independence in 1960 which had remained till date. A wish for a united, economically strong and buoyant nation, of multiple friendly and loving cultures that will attract people from outside our shores like bees to honey. A country of freedom with wide expanse of landscape, beautiful and diversity, with unquantifiable mineral and agricultural potentials, a country with established religious secularity where love for humanity is paramount. A freedom that will encourage genuine creativity, where ideas are propounded beyond the confines of ethnicity and religion, of true democracy and federalism, of independent states that will not run cap in hand to the federal authorities for hand outs. I wish for truly productive and independent states looking inward to tap on available resources and using them for the benefits of the people. This has been our dream and that is my wish as we commence the new year. Are these wishes achievable? I say yes because the materials to make them realisable are in great abundance in this country – land, labour, capital and entrepreneurs – but the will to see it through is the big problem. This ‘will’ is mostly influenced by the principal factors of ethnicity, religion and party sentiments. These are the factors that have made it impossible to tame the monster of corruption in this nation. When we fight corruption on the basis of religious, ethnic and party interests, we only scratch the surface of the cancer. Some have said that we start with the ones that we have selectively arraigned and I say; start with all, no discrimination. It is my wish this new year that the corruption fight be done without discrimination, that way no one will be in doubt about the administration’s sincerity.

The question then is: how do we make this change possible, realistic and convincing to the people?

If you cannot find the correct compass, you will never be able to reach your destination. For how long are we going to run this country on lies? As long as we pretend not to know the truth, the change will remain a mirage. The people must be told the real situation of things, that way they will not be disappointed with the outcome even if it is not in their favour. True communication is based on real facts, not propaganda. You want to feed and get youths into employment in this country and you do not have a factual data base of the number of employable youths in the country, no correct statistics, how can you execute such programme without bringing in sentiments and other untoward factors?

So, the first point of take off must be to put in place a verifiable and reliable data base, in fact, a true census for the people. If it is too cumbersome at the federal level because of present economic challenges, we can begin from the local government levels, then the states and finally, the federal level for collation. Every state should have an authentic census of its own, the way the Lagos government did a few years back, with proper planning, the cost will still be within reasonable range.

Once that is achieved we can use the information not only for planning and forecasting purposes but for such others like the insurgency battles and containment of illegal immigrants. The insurgency battles go beyond ammunitions, it is more of intelligence; when you have good data base, your ability to contain insurgency is enhanced. Census must not be seen as an opportunity for ethnic groups to gain dominance, it goes beyond all that shenanigans.

Propaganda will not bring the desired change, rather our determination to change our approach to resolving issues. It is my wish also that the change in this country extends to correction of inherent structural defects. The centre is too unwieldy, bogus and wasteful. States should get a larger share of the allocations and the federal government should concentrate on its core roles. The structure that we have now is what breeds corruption.

I wish that we can truly determine our population. I wish that we can sort out our over dependence on oil. I wish that recovered funds could be tied to specific visible projects instead of the normal sharing practice. It is my wish that every drop of mineral resources leaving our shores will be accounted for properly. It is also my wish that there is no discrimination or selective treatments in the pursuit of our anti-corruption war. It is my wish that our leaders would be bound by their statements and promises. It is my wish that we tap into all the derivatives from our petrochemical productions beyond petrol, diesel and kerosene. It is my wish that we tap into the potentials of solar energy and include same in our national housing policy like the South Africans have done. And, finally, we must run our government on verifiable facts and not on unfounded propaganda.
Happy New Year and may all of our wishes come true.

*Mr. Ikhioya, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Lagos.