By Ayo Akinfe
Can the APC and PDP get all their presidential candidates to sign this Contract with Nigeria as a condition for standing in their party primaries?
[1] I am committed to supporting life imprisonment with no possibility of parole, for public officials found guilty of corruption
[2] I am committed to the scrapping of Sharia law in all the 36 states of Nigeria. We live in a democracy not a theocracy so there should be a clear division between the state and religion
[3] I am 100% committed to the imposition of a 20% entertainment tax on evangelical churches that produce celebrity pastors who fly around in private jets and amass millions at the expense of the masses. This money should be used to fund education, healthcare, housing, transport and other social services
[4] I am fully committed to scrapping the current federal allocation regime whereby money is shared among governors monthly. States must be forced to generate their own internal revenue. I want to see a return to the 1957/58 fiscal federalism formula under which the federating units are responsible for control of the resources in their domain. This will cover everything including mineral, agricultural, capital, manufacturing and service industries. I am promising to support a regime in which the states, serving as the federating units, will keep 50% of the wealth they generate, put 30% into a central emergency pot and only 20% of it will go to the federal government
[5] Nigeria will no longer subsidise or augment religious pilgrimages. Anyone who wishes to go on a religious pilgrimage will do so at their own expense with no government contribution towards it
[6] Any community which wishes to have traditional rulers will have to fund their existence privately. State and federal governments will no longer augment, subsidise or bankroll traditional and cultural institutions.
[7] I am committed to local governments being given full autonomy and be wholly independent of their governors. They should be free to set their own budgets, spend resources as they see fit and be accountable for how they use public funds
[8] Every state in Nigeria must commit to spending at least 15% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on education. Failure to do so, should lead to the federal government declaring a state of emergency in such a state and appointing an administrator to run its affairs
[9] Similarly, any state that fails to generate enough revenue internally for three months in succession to meet its own expenses should have the federal government declare a state of emergency in it. Administrators should be appointed to run such states
[10] All public officials will be barred from going abroad for medical treatment and sending their children to foreign universities. A breach of this rule should attract automatic impeachment or dismissal
[11] Women will occupy 50% of all public offices as from 2015 at all federal and state levels. Any governor or local government chairman who falls foul of this law must face impeachment
[12] No Nigerian should be discriminated against on the basis of their ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender or age. Laws punishing people for being ethnic, sexual, religious or other minorities should be scrapped immediately
[13] Your state of birth should be your state of origin. The current arrangement whereby your parents’ place of birth is your state of origin must be scrapped
[14] Every state governor and local government chairman must publish monthly financial statements detailing his/her income and expenditure. This information must be publicly accessible on the Internet and available for independent auditing
[15] All public contracts must be awarded via competitive tendering with bidding sessions televised. Any contract not so awarded will automatically be voided
[16] It will be an impeachable offence for any government minister to award contracts to his private companies or to those of members of his family
[17] Every state government must provide free and compulsory full time education for every child within its domain between the ages of five and 16. Failure to do this should result in the prosecution of the education commissioner. In addition, every state government is compelled to offer at least one square meal a day to every school aged child within its domain
[18] We are committed to the scrapping of the immunity clause for public officials. Anyone occupying public office is liable for prosecution while in office if there is evidence to suggest financial or other misdemeanours
[19] Every state government must spend at least one third of its annual budget on capital projects in a bid to develop its infrastructure
[20] Every single one of Nigeria’s 774 local governments must have at least one youth sports facility within its domain
Ayo is a London-based journalist who has worked as a magazine and newspaper editor for the last 31 years. He was the founding editor of Nigerian Watch, the UK-based paper for the Nigerian community in the UK.
He is the current president of Ondo Union UK, the chair of Uncelebrated Nigerian Awards UK and was the chairman of the Nigerian Centenary Awards UK organising committee. He was recently appointed as the Chairman of the Central Association of Nigerians in the UK
He is also the author of two books on Nigeria. Fuelling the Delta Fires is an expose which reveals the depth of the challenges in the Niger Delta, while Black Ladder is a narrative about the life of a Nigerian immigrant in the UK. In addition, Ayo is a columnist for several publishing houses in both Nigeria and the UK.
Ayo has a history degree from the University of Ibadan and he did his post-graduate studies in journalism at the University of Westminster.
