Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former president, has recommended way forward for Muhammadu Buhari, president-elect’s administration in governing a new Nigeria.
This is coming as Buhari accused the outgoing Goodluck Jonathan government of not giving him “tips” on how to kick-start his administration on May 29
But Obasanjo, through his think-tank group, examined critical areas of the economy and submitted a review to Buhari.
The group which was launched four months ago under the Centre for Human Security of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library examined five key areas of education, power, the economy, security and infrastructure.
Garba Shehu, director of Media and Publicity of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation, told journalists after the presentation by the committee.
Shehu added that the President-elect “thanked the Obasanjo initiative for the gesture, assuring the committee that his incoming administration will be needing advice as time goes on.”
Areas covered by committee in the document include the economy, security, power, education and infrastructure.
He said that Obasanjo had set up a think tank to carry out a study on the challenges facing the country in the five key areas.
The study, he added, was started four months ago “so that the outcome will be made available to the incoming administration after the election.”
He also revealed Dr. Christopher Kolade, Nigeria’s former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, who headed the power committee, gave various stages of the proposed power sector development plan to include short-term, medium-term, long-term solutions.
Under the short-term solution, the plan seeks to raise the country’s power generation to 10,000 MW within a very short period of time.
He added that the president-elect described the intervention of Obasanjo and his team as a great impetus for the incoming government.
Kalu Idika Kalu, vice-chairman of the committee, who is a former Minister of Finance, said, “We have looked at education, security, economy, power and Infrastructure. Those are the areas we have made recommendations and which we hope the new administration would be able to work on.”
He further explained that the president-elect was very happy that they had been thinking about how to help him hit the ground running.
Akin Mabogunje, chairman of the centre’s governing board, who also spoke to journalists after the event, said the committee had been working on a number of critical issues for the development of the country.
According to him, a delegation of the committee members involved in the preparation of the policy document was sent to present the report to the President-elect.
Meanwhile, Buhari has regretted that the outgoing government that is supposed to give him tips on how to take off has done nothing so far.