El-Rufai reveals what may cost next president’s reelection

The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has revealed some standing blocks that many cost the next elected president's re-election.

According to him, measures to handle the fuel subsidy and foreign exchange challenges to reform the country’s economy may become a problem for the next president’s second term bid.

El-Rufai noted that this change will require a leader capable of withstanding office pressure, take drastic decisions in order to ensure the Nigeria’s development.

The governor said this at a panel discussion at the launch of the World Bank Nigeria Development Update and Country Economic Memorandum on Thursday, December 15 in Abuja.

“The next president of Nigeria must be willing to do just one term if necessary but reverse this trend,” the governor said while answering questions on the removal of fuel subsidy.

“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 sectors 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.”

BS