A former Minister of Finance, Kalu Idika Kalu, has said that Nigeria must identity its most pressing emergencies and resolve them if there is to be another general election in the country.
He said that insecurity and economic adversity were emergencies that needed to be thoroughly tackled before anything else.
Kalu said that to tackle the challenges, their severity must first be recognised and a “quick conference” called to address them.
He expressed dismay that politicians were already scheming for 2023 when no one was certain how 2021 or 2022 would end for the country.
“The year 2023 or any other date has to be secondary to the emergencies that we have just talked about.
Read Also: Nigeria experiencing total retardation in all facets of national life under Buhari – Bode George
“The issue of a date – short term, long term or medium term – can only be secondary to the identification of present problems that we need to tackle.
“We even have electoral problems; we even have issues as to how we are going to have elections; how the results will be transmitted in a transparent manner to those who voted, not to mention the issue of the great drop in employment, great drop in production and of course the entire issue of security.
“So, when we have identified the emergencies we need to address now, then we can focus on 2023 or whatever. But if we cannot address those issues, it is putting the cart before the horse.
“We are talking of 2023 when we are not sure of 2022, when we are not even sure how 2021 will end because of the sheer enormity of the problem we are facing. People are kidnapped. Some people who don’t even have money to eat are forced to borrow to pay ransom. Those that have been kidnapped are even killed.
“Ordinary people, farmers, traders, who should be minding their own business, are being threatened by forces that they don’t even understand, to the extent that they will be on lockdown and would not be allowed to move around, and many of them don’t even understand. These are things that we need to face now.
“To be talking of 2023 is jumping ahead. We should be talking of emergencies that we have now,” Kalu said.
Leave a Reply