2023: El-Rufai Lists Things Next President Must Do

The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai on Thursday listed essential things the next President of Nigeria should achieve when he takes over power in 2023.

President Muhammadu Buhari-led government will end in May 2023 after spending eight years in office.

El-Rufai called on whoever takes over from Buhari to tackle the challenges of fuel subsidy and foreign exchange.

Naija News gathered that the Kaduna State Governor made this call on Thursday in Abuja during a panel discussion at the launch of the World Bank Nigeria Development Update and Country Economic Memorandum.

El-Rufai, while speaking on the issue of fuel subsidy in the country, said, “The next president of Nigeria must be willing to do just one term if necessary but reverse this trend.”

According to El-Rufai, state governments and the private sector have agreed that hard decisions must be taken.

He added, “I think that Nigeria’s next president must be willing to take very difficult, immediate, and urgent decisions that will make the country go through maybe three to five years of pain, and reverse this trajectory. I am proud to be a member of the Obasanjo administration during that decade of growth. We were in that government and we knew what we had to do.

“We know what President Obasanjo had to do. The next president of Nigeria must be willing to do just one term if necessary but reverse this trend. The consensus is there. If 95 per cent of jobs are from the private sector, 90 per cent of GDP is from the private sector.

“The private sector agrees that these things must be done. The state governments have agreed that these things must be done. The two big elephants are fuel subsidy and the exchange rate and those at the receiving end of this are the private sector and the sub nationals.

“We have agreed. What we need is a president willing to expend political capital and take risks to reverse the trajectory of this country on a permanent basis even if it costs him the election because the results may not begin to show until after three to five years.”

He noted that the right policies in the country will help put Nigeria where it deserves to be.