Thread by @eyooekpo

Nigeria’s dire situation is caused by the failure to develop and execute policy aright. At the root of this failure is the absence of a national ethos, of community and shared commitment to national well-being; #TLFPoliceTownhall #PovertyToWealth

https://twitter.com/TheLiberalForum/status/1022089286836019202

2/ the failure to recognise that these, rather than military spending and a rabid focus on regime security, are the true foundations of any credible national security strategy (NSS) and the policies/laws derived from it. #TLFPolicyTownHall #PovertyToWealth

3/ A new NSS must be developed in collaboration with the States, which must then domesticate it, duly modified, as individual State Strategies. All policy development must derive from this with the sole objective #TLFPolicyTownhall #PovertyToWealth

4/ to put as many citizens as desire it to work in value-added jobs. The FG and States like mine, Cross River State, in order to attain this goal, must propose policies/laws aimed at attaining 4 key propositions: #PovertytoWealth #TLFPolicyTownhall

5/ 1.Good governance/devolution of powers: re-establishing institutions that truly work – parliamentary democracy, a functional, outstanding civil service, the connection between the traditional institution, #PovertyTowealth #TLFPolicyTownhall

6/ local government and the State/regional government, a defence establishment and an intelligence community that gives meaning to “patriotism” and not the permanence of the government in power. #TLFPolicyTownhall

7/ All these subsist within a written, simple, federal constitution that truly empowers States and enables them to assume the full powers and authority necessary to foster the development of their human and natural resources for the benefit of the citizenry. #TLFpolicyTownhall

8/ 2.Education and Healthcare: STEM is the basis of any effort to develop human resource that is forward-looking, resourceful and innovative. #TLFPolicyTownhall

9/ States must conduct a top-to-bottom review of their education systems and refocus school curricula, teacher training and education system management on producing individuals prepared to thrive in a globalised world. #TLFPolicyTownhall

10/ In healthcare, we must still grapple with establishing a functional primary healthcare system and stem the resurgence of the massive drain of gifted young medical doctors away from Nigeria. #TLFPolicyTownhall

11/ These are impossible without health insurance that efficiently cross-subsidises healthcare (can Nigerian Federal and State Government develop efficient cross-subsidy models?), particularly for disadvantaged under-5s and the rural women and elderly. #TLFPolicyTownhall

12/ Special emphasis here is on education and health care at the primary level.
3. Social development, entrepreneurship and innovation are impossible without infrastructure. Decades of Federal and State Governments misdirecting their attention on #TLFPolicyTownhall

13/ active participation in business rather than fostering enabling environments across the country for infrastructure projects, innovative technology and entrepreneurial ventures, has caused incalculable loss to Governments and the citizenry. #TLFPolicyTownhall

14/ Commercial and fiscal incentives continue to be focused on enabling monopoly ventures to expand their claw hold on the national economy, in the guise of providing jobs to Nigerians. #TLFPolicyTownhall

15/ One only needs to compare the ease with which the likes of Dangote Industries continue to obtain various sinecures as “investment incentives” and “pioneer status”, while making almost-indecent profit margins, #TLFPolicyTownhall

16/ but fledgling ecosystems of innovation/SME growth like Yaba’s “Silicon Valley” continue to struggle with daunting infrastructure and financing challenges with too little being done by the State and Federal Governments to support their growth/expansion. #TLFPolicyTownhall

17/ 4. #PovertyToWealth will not happen in an environment of lawlessness, disorder and the wilful despoliation of the environment. Cases in point are the ongoing state of anomie and near-anarchy in the Niger Delta, the NorthEast and

18/ the deforestation of Nigeria’s last major stock of tropical hardwoods in the rainforest belt of my own Cross River State, all of which have happened with the neglect or even connivance of both Federal and State Governments. #TLFPolicyTownhall

19/ In these areas of Nigeria, policies that deliberately focus on genuinely working with the private sector and NGOs on reforestation, devolution of responsibility for policing and caring for sensitive infrastructure to States, LGAs and #TLFPolicyTownhall

20/ local communities, girl-child education and the elevation/protection of child/women rights, developed and implemented with patience and sensitivity, can begin to turnaround communities that have every reason to believe that poverty is their lot forever. #TLFPolicyTownhall

21/21 None of these propositions are beyond the capacity of Nigerian’s own human resources to undertake. We can do these things. We must do them if Nigeria is to become a united and progressive sovereign entity. #TLFPolicyTownhall #PovertyToWealth