The task before Nigeria’s president-elect

By Abba Dukawa

The feeling of success is a special one and this feeling becomes magical when someone achieves his lifetime ambition against all odds in life. For the president-elect, becoming the president of the largest democracy in Africa is actualising a lifetime ambition.

The president-elect has won the election when the nation is at a critical stage.

He will have to tackle many issues that outgoing administration will leave behind including a struggling economy, corruption, insecurity, high unemployment, rising inflation and a country divided along ethnic lines.

Nigeria is neck-deep in debt hovering around N44.06 trillion in September 2022.

However, if the N23.7 trillion CBN loan is securitized, our debt stock could amount to about N77 trillion in June 2023.

There is a need for the incoming administration to put all necessary policies to bar federal and states government from borrowing and in the case where the borrowing is necessary the said borrowing will be used to fund projects that can generate revenue out of which the debt can be repaid.

Nigeria’s inflation rate resumed its uptrend in January 2023, hitting a record high of 21.82%. This represents a 0.47% increase when compared to the 21.34% recorded in the previous month. While the unemployment which has been projected that the country’s unemployment rate will hit 37 per cent in 2023

It is not an impossible job, but the task ahead is daunting.

Abba Dukawa, Kano

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