How about the federal government set up a Nigerian Top 10 Problems Directorate with a mandate to tackle these issues

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Our economy is too dependent on oil. We simply do not generate enough wealth to cater for 220m people. Nigeria’s mono-economy with a gross domestic product (GDP) of less than $400bn and an annual budget of about $30bn, can probably only look after about 10m people properly. We must find a way to increase our GDP to at least $1trn over the next five years

[2] Ethnic mistrust: With 250 ethnic groups, there is too much suspicion among some of the component parts of Nigeria. Our elite have mastered the art of exploiting these differences. For instance, mention resource control and fears are raised across northern Nigeria

[3] Education is beyond the reach of the poor, leading to the breeding of almajiris, area boys and recruits for the likes of Boko Haram and Fulani cattle herdsmen. Across Nigeria, education must be made free until the end of secondary school across all 774 local government areas

[4] As a people, we do not believe in fair play, hence why many small businesses fail. If you ask for 20 gallons of diesel to be delivered to your factory for instance or 40 gallons of water to your fish farm, you need to be there in person to take delivery or you will be short changed. We need to come up with a national fair play campaign

[5] We no longer have a functioning public primary healthcare system. Private healthcare is beyond the reach of the average Nigerian. State governors must be made to sign undertakings committing themselves to this

[6] States and local government areas are not allowed to function independently and address domestic needs without outside interference. For instance, they cannot unilaterally address say their power and transport needs independent of Abuja. Governors and local government chairman aspirants have to sign undertakings committing them to serious responsibilities

[7] Our leaders, like the average Nigerian politician simply lacks the vision, imagination and foresight to come up with a roadmap to accelerate development. The last real visionary we had in Nigeria was Obafemi Awolowo. We need to find a way to orientate the masses

[8] Corruption in high places. This permeates down into the civil service, police, universities, hospitals, etc. We need a political code of conduct, which all office aspirants must sign up to

[9] Insecurity: As we all know, the federal government is reluctant to crack down on this problem. I think creating six geo-political zone security agencies will help address the matter

[10] Poor infrastructure like roads, stadia, railway networks and above all power supply. I think we need a coordinating minister for infrastructure to have overall responsibility for all these problems

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