In a few days, a new government will take over the control of the affairs of the country. The incumbent government has not achieved much in its eight years of reign in Nigeria. Many sectors of the country are still comatose. The areas that need attention are vast but there are three major areas which the new government should give priority in the coming years.
The first sector is education. Education is the fulcrum of development in every society and the importance of this must not be lost on the incoming government. Evidently, countries that have advanced and those that strive to advance take education very seriously.
Right from independence, Nigeria’s education sector has been dysfunctional because of myriad of problems. Chief among them is incessant disputes between various governments and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU. The ASUU and the federal government have been engaged in disputes that seem never to end.
Thus, ASUU resorts to embarking in industrial action which it considers as the last option that is strong enough to influence the government to pay some listening ear to problems bedeviling the education system of the country.
The second area is security. The Nigerian security situation continues to deteriorate. The crime rate in Nigeria is extremely high. Institutions remain weak with insufficiently protected property, rights, high corruption. When looked from a far end, one of the major causes of insecurity is unemployment.
In recent times Nigeria has witnessed an unprecedented level of insecurity such as Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, herders-farmers clashes. As a result, parents are afraid of sending their children to school for fear of being kidnapped. At this time, the incoming government should not just focus on security but invest in peace-building, reconstruction and rehabilitation and socio-economic development.
The third area is health. Nigeria faces tremendous health challenges. Many Nigerians travel abroad to seek medication for their ailments because of the dire situation of health infrastructure in the country.
According to records from the World Health Organisation (WHO), an average of 20,000 Nigerians travel to India each year for medical assistance due to the absence of a solid healthcare system at home. Nigeria is responsible for the highest number of under-five child deaths.
The situation with health sector workers is even more depressing. Over the years, many of Nigeria’s health workers have been traveling abroad to seek for better opportunities. Most hospitals especially primary health centers are dilapidated, with dearth of medical equipment.
In a nutshell, the incoming government will have its hands full in solving pertinent issues in the country’s education, security and health sectors. The new government must bring everyone on board in order to help create a long-term blueprint for the education, security and health sectors.
This should include a strategy for success with timelines and key performance indicators. As citizens, we should all be ready to support policies that are formulated or the betterment of our dear country.
Fatima Dauda Salihu,
Mass Communication,
Bayero University, Kano.
