Nigeria's new President faces old problems
Bola Ahmed Tinubu was sworn in as the new President of Africa's most populous country and largest economy.
Nigeria's new President faces old problems
• Why in news?
Bola Ahmed Tinubu was sworn in as the new President of Africa's most populous country and largest economy.
• Issue and solutions
The state of Nigeria presents a puzzling dichotomy, with its richness in natural and human resources, and endemic issues of insecurity, high unemployment and corruption. On one hand, the fertile country is known for competent professionals and entrepreneurs, on the other hand, is houses the world's largest number of people below the poverty line and children out of school.
Insecurity has been a recurrent feature, with mass kidnappings for ransom, bloody ethnic conflicts and petty robberies. The country's grid power generation remains stuck at around 4GW and its oil refineries continue to operate at low capacity.
Nigeria's socioeconomic recovery would need front-loading of its multiple assets. A competent civil service establishment and a vibrant entrepreneurial class has the potential to drive the country out of administrative and economic distress. Further, being a young society with a median age of 18.3 years, they desperately need better education, skilling and jobs. Apart from this, Nigeria has large swathes of fertile, irrigated land and focusing on the farming sector can make it food self-dependent. Lastly, the oil sector, the mainstay of exports and government revenue, needs better handling. The gap in its oil production, compared to the OPEC, can be plugged by curbing crude theft and bunkering.