By Rita Okoye

As Nigerians look forward to better times from the new administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Lukman Olawale Shobowale and other stakeholders in many sectors are calling for reforms that are long overdue in their various areas of endeavour.

Prominent among such sectors is the petroleum downstream sector, where the change is expected to be immediate given that the new president declared in his inauguration speech that the era of fuel subsidy is gone.

A lot of Nigerians, irrespective of their ethnic, religious, and political differences, agreed with the president.

A former lawmaker and human rights activists, Shehu Sani, reflecting on the president’s decision said the country has reached a point when it has to do away with fuel subsidy no matter the level of blackmail against its removal.

Nigerians are now waiting eagerly to see how Tinubu will implement his decision pragmatically.

Another area where stakeholders are pushing for reform is the educational sector. Nigeria’s educational system, long criticised for being outdated, is considered by educationists  be overdue for reforms, especially with the never-ending friction between the Academic Staff Unions of Universities (ASUU) and the federal government. Most recently, in May 2023, Mrs Bukola Ladoja, wife of the former governor of Oyo State, and herself an educationist, called for the restructuring of the Nigerian education system to meet the demands of the time and also accord equity to the Nigerian child irrespective of parents’ economic status.

Stakeholders in the real estate sector are also pushing for a review of Nigeria’s Land Use Act.

Recently, one of the stakeholders in the sector, Lukman Olawale Shobowale, the co-founder and CEO of  Lagos-based Dukiya Investments Limited, argued that reviewing the Land Use Act 1978 will open up the sector for investment, encourage private sector participation, improve home ownership, and foster the redistribution of land as a major economic resource.

Virtually every sector of the country’s economy is begging for reforms, and it is assumed that the new administration, based on its manifesto during the election campaign, will do justice to the situation on ground.