Understanding President Buhari’s ‘system thinking’ approach

There are four groups of Nigerians keenly watching President Muhammadu Buhari’s style of governance. The first group is of Nigerians who are familiar with the general’s style of doing ‘things’. This group is observing things quietly without being troubled. In fact, this group is very optimistic that the change Nigerians voted for will come with very fruitful results. The second group is of those Nigerians that passionately admire Buhari but are worried that after nearly eight months in power, the expected ‘fire-fire’ approach from the retired general is yet to commence. The third group is of the pessimists who are still in doubt whether things will change tremendously. The fourth is of the unconstructive antagonists – they want to see Buhari’s failure in order to justify their past very poor performance.

For the first group, they need no explanation on how things would work because they are very aware of how things will take shape. For the second and third groups, an explanation to them is needed in order to keep their minds at rest. For the fourth group, they will always see things from the perspective of their hearts; they will always be unnecessarily antagonistic to the Buhari government.

For those groups of Nigerians who want change, let them be assured that the Buhari government will operate in a style that operations research scientists call ‘system thinking’ – a series approach to governance where all developmental sectors are connected and will influence each other within a well-planned government. President Buhari will use this approach to achieve a realistic development within the first four years of his government.

For instance, improvement in infrastructure will be connected to human capital development, productive job creation and private sector effective participation in development. In addition, development of infrastructure like roads, railways, ports, etc will be linked to generation of more revenue for the government to support other sectors of the economy.

Youth development will be connected to agriculture, solid mineral development and education. For example, government will tie its development strategy in agriculture to encourage youths to participate in agriculture, which will in turn generate more agro-based productive jobs and enhance national food security. President Buhari reiterated this at the recent convocation ceremony of the Kaduna State University when he said, “We must promote and enhance the teaching and learning of entrepreneurial skills in all schools and tertiary institutions, thereby exposing our youths to the basics and rudiments of starting and sustaining their own businesses.”

The development of the mining sector will be connected to poverty reduction and small scale industries support; those engaged in illegal and unstructured local mining will be assisted by the government to form small mining firms in order to produce sufficient quality minerals for export. This will eliminate illegal mining and create more jobs and revenue for the government.

The ‘system thinking’ approach was responsible for President Buhari’s systematic assigning of portfolios to his ministers, putting round pegs in round holes. Equally, most of the president’s foreign trips were meant to link Nigeria’s current development needs with its international relations.

In summary, the layman’s way to understand the Buhari ‘system thinking’ approach is that it is designed to tackle Nigeria’s numerous problem in series – a kind of development model whereby the country simultaneously develops its infrastructure, agricultural sector, education, small scale industries and human capital. That is, putting in place a process through which all sectors of the country’s economy are transformed over a defined period through the reinvigoration and connection of these sectors and placing the country in a position where its citizens can take advantage of the vast opportunities its economy offers.

Zayyad I. Muhammad