President Muhammadu Buhari was on Wednesday, May 29, sworn in as president of Nigeria for another four-year term, alongside Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, at the Eagle Square in Abuja.
This is Buhari’s second and final term in office as president of Africa’s most populous country, according to the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.
Buhari, who was declared winner of the February 23, 2019 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after defeating his main challenger, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), with 15.2 million votes to 11.3 million votes, had promised during his campaign for a second term that he would take Nigeria to the ‘Next Level’.
In the ‘Next Level’ policy document that formed the matrix of Buhari’s campaign, the 76-year-old outlined strategies he would deploy in 11 key sectors that would enable his administration get back on track the economy that is slowly recovering from a recession it slid into in 2016 due to a fall in global oil prices and restiveness in the Niger Delta region.
Even though Buhari’s swearing-in on Wednesday was devoid of the usual inauguration speech where the incoming outline plans for the next four years, BusinessDay revisited the ‘Next Level’ document which contains Buhari’s promises. Below are some of these promises.
Job creation
President Buhari in his ‘Next Level’ document promised to engage one million graduates in the N-Power programme. N-Power is a Federal Government programme that addresses the challenge of youth unemployment by providing a structure for large-scale and relevant work skills acquisition and development while linking its core and outcomes to fixing inadequate public services and stimulating the larger economy.
“It would also skill up about 10 million Nigerians under a voucher system in partnership with the private sector,” the document said.
Buhari also promised that his ‘Next Level’ would provide $500 million innovation fund to tech and the creative sector which would in turn create 500,000 jobs.
In the next four years, Nigerian youths are desirous to see the Buhari administration tackle unemployment that has more than tripled since the President came to office in 2015.
The calculated unemployment rate was 23.1 percent as at the third quarter of 2018, representing an increase of 22.9 percent from the 18.8 percent recorded in the same period in 2017, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Underemployment stood at 20.1 percent, and the combined unemployment and underemployment rate was 43.3 percent.
“In my next four years, my administration will train about 200,000 youths for outsourcing market in technology, services and entertainment,” Buhari promised in the document.
Even though the document did not spell out how these plans would be achieved, the electorate are gearing up to hold President Buhari accountable for the 18 million Nigerians he promised to lift out of poverty through job creation.
Infrastructure
Amongst other things, President Buhari promised to continue to revitalise the dilapidated infrastructure across the country. He said he would complete the Ibadan-Kano phase of the Lagos-Ibadan-Kano rail; complete Eastern Rail (Port-Harcourt-Maiduguri), taking the network through Aba, all South-East state capitals, Makurdi, Jos, Bauchi and Gombe; complete the coastal rail (Lagos-Calabar), and complete the 2nd Niger Bridge connecting Anambra and Delta States.
Buhari in the ‘Next Level’ document also promised to complete the East-West Road connecting Warri, Delta to Oron, Akwa-Ibom State, through Kaiama and Port-Harcourt in Balyesa and Rivers, respectively. He further said he would complete the link bridge on Itakpe-Warri rail to Abuja through Lokoja.
Power
On power, President Buhari said he would provide a minimum of 1,000MW new generation incremental power capacity per annum on the grid to bring a total of a minimum of 11,000MW.
Buhari also promised to increase the distribution capacity in the power sector to 7,000MW under the distribution expansion programme and provide nine universities with uninterrupted power supply.
Furthermore, he said he would execute the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP), a $550 million Rural Electrification Programme which is supported by the World Bank/African Development Bank to create a pipeline of private local investments and financial incentives to catalyse the Nigerian off-grid market for standalone solar solutions.
Economy and SMEs
For entrepreneurs who operate in the small and medium scale space, Buhari said his ‘Next Level’ policies would, amongst other things, provide soft loans of up to N1 million to small traders and commercial drivers.
The President also promised to take the current 2.3 million traders, farmers and artisans under the Trader Moni, Market Moni and Farmer Moni schemes to 10 million Nigerians under the People Moni Scheme, as well as provide soft loans to support business ideas across the different value chain.
Ease of doing business
After moving 25 places up the ladder, Nigeria dropped a spot to 146th among 190 countries in the World Bank’s 2019 Doing Business Index (DBI). This is despite the country making an improvement in the ease of doing business score from 51.52 to 52.89.
To upscale this, President Buhari said his second term in office would legislate and enforce deadlines for the issuance of government licences and permits and simplify investment, Customs, immigration, trade and production procedures.
Security and anti-corruption
In the fight against insecurity and corruption that are casting shadows in the reputation of the country, the ‘Next Level’ promised to decentralise the funding of police operations and implement a direct transfer of funding to the Police Division all across; execute the second phase of the Farmer-Herder and National Livestock Policy to end the decades-long conflict between farmers and herders, and eliminate the scope of systemic corruption by emphasising technology enabled e-Governance.
Technology
In the area of technology, Buhari promised to create a vibrant Gig economy around business process outsourcing, technology, creative sector with flexibility, e-lancing and freelancing as key features.
The President promised to drive the procurement of start-up services by promoting quota for tech startups; support private sector-led technology hubs by providing grants, equity and loans, and move broadband coverage to 120,00km of fibre network across Nigeria.
MICHEAL ANI
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