7 Nigerians Who Can Do The Job Better Than Buhari

Donald Duke, Emir Sanusi, Okojo Iweala, Tony Eluemelu Top list,

The furious and spirited political activities in recent times suggest that the race for 2019 has begun in earnest. There has been series of alignment and realignment, politicians considering where their interest is best served, while old
enemies are quickly turning into new friends.
New promises are being made, frayed nerves are being soothed, massaged or even cajoled. Permuations and weighing of political options has become the hallmark of the moment.
President Buhari is a prime candidate, as he seeks a second
term, but I believe the way forward is for him to step aside after having ensured that he leaves the country in the hands of an astute, much younger leaders who will protect his
anti-corruption, economic and security legacies. There are more than enough young, cosmopolitan, visionary, well- educated and very vibrant people who can still take over
power in whatever combination.
Buhari at 76, by 2019, and 80, by 2023, when and if he completes his second term, age would no longer be on hisside,. The President should kindly attend more to his health
from now onwards.

Here’s a list of 7 Nigerians who can do the job better, Donald Duke
Donald Duke born 30 September 1961 in Calabar was the Governor of Cross River State, Nigeria from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007. He received LLB degree in 1982 from Ahmadu Bello, Zaria , the B.L in 1983 from the Nigerian Law School Lagos and the L.L.M. in Business Law and Admiralty in 1984 from University of Pennyslavania.
Among Governor Duke ‘s notable achievements as the Governor of Cross River state are the upgrading of the Cattle Ranch in Obanliku into a Ranch Resort, the transformation of
Cross River State into a world tourism destination, real investment inflow, job creation, reform of the State Civil Service, computerization of the nominal and payroll system
for the public service and cultivation of Banking culture for Public/Civil Servants, etc. Agriculture took centre-stage with the establishment of export-oriented agricultural projects for the cultivation of such crops lines as pipe-apple, castor oil, cashew and oil palm.
He created the idea of the Obudu Ranch International Mountain Race and the race grew to become one of the most lucrative mountain running competitions in the world under
his stewardship. Donald Duke initiated the Tinapa Resort project as a way to boost business and tourism in the state. Over $350 million was spent on initial development
before phase 1 opening in April 2007.
Donald Duke announced that he would run for president in the 2007 presidential election, but stepped aside in favour of the eventual winner, Umaru Yar’adua. A widely travelled young man and a member of leading Social Clubs and
philanthropic Organizations, Governor Duke is happily married to Owanari Bob Manuel Duke (nee Bob Manuel) an accomplished Legal Practitioner in her own right. The first
couple of the State is blessed with three highly promising children.
It remains a mystery why, and how, Donald Duke , was abandoned, and wasted, by his Party, PDP. But I’m very certain that Donald Duke would have performed and delivered once more with his uncommon vision, zeal and the determination to succeed where others failed.
This charismatic, cosmopolitan, suave, visionary, audacious and cerebral gentleman can be the answer to Nigeria’s hope of good governance.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II (CON) was born Sanusi Lamido Sanusi; 31 July 1961 is the 14th Emir of Kano.
He was crowned on 8 June 2014 after the death of his grand
uncle Ado Bayero (who died on 6 June 2014). Emir Sanusi was a successful banker and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. He was appointed on 3 June 2009 for a five- year term, but was suspended from office by President
Goodluck Jonathan on 20 February 2014 after claiming that a $20 billion fraud was committed in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
As the CBN Governor, Sanusi anchored his reforms agenda
in the Nigerian banking and financial sector, on four pillars: enhancing the quality of banks, establishing financial stability sector, enabling healthy financial sector evolution,
and ensuring that the financial sector contributes to the real sector of the economy.
In August 2009, the Sanusi led the Central Bank rescued Afribank, Intercontinental Bank, Union Bank, Oceanic Bank and Finbank by bailing them out with 400 billion naira of
public money, and dismissed their chief executives.
The global financial intelligence magazine, The Banker, published by the Financial Times, conferred on Sanusi two awards, the global award for Central Bank Governor of the
Year, as well as for Central Bank Governor of the Year for Africa.
The TIME magazine also listed Sanusi in its TIMES 100 list of
Most Influential People of 2011. In 2013, Sanusi was also awarded a Special GIFA award at the third Global Islamic Finance Awards held in Dubai, for his advocacy role in
promoting Islamic banking and finance in Nigeria during his stint as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.In 2015,
Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II was awarded Global Leadership in Islamic Finance Award 2015 by Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA) to become the fifth GIFA Laureate,
It is believed that this cosmopolitan, suave, visionary, audacious and cerebral hausa man will perform brilliantly as the President of Nigeria, but his position as the Emir of Kano
may hamper that reality.

Tony Elumelu
Tony Elumelu Tony Onyemaechi Elumelu born 22 March 1963 is a
Nigerian economist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is the Chairman of Heirs Holding, the United Bank for Africa, Transcorp and founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation.
In his early career, Elumelu acquired and turned Standard Trust Bank into a top-five player in Nigeria. In 2005 he led the acquisition of United Bank For Africa and later transforming it from a single-country bank to a pan-African institution with more than seven million customers in 19
African countries.
In 2010, Elumelu founded Heirs Holdings, which invests in the financial services, energy, real estate and hospitality, agribusiness, and healthcare sectors. In the same year, he established the Tony Elumelu Foundation. As a premier pan-African-focused not-for-profit
institution,the Tony Elumelu Foundation is dedicated to the
promotion and celebration of entrepreneurship and excellence in business leadership across the continent, with initiatives such as The Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship
Programme (TEEP).
Elumelu holds the Nigerian national honours, the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) and Member of the order of the Niger (MFR). He was recognised as one of
Africa’s Most Influential People in 2012 by Forbes Magazine
In 2013, Elumelu received the Leadership Award in Business
and Philanthropy from the Africa-America Institute (AAI) Awards.He was also named African Business Icon at the 2013 African Business Awards.
It is believed that with Elumelu’s depth of knowledge and experience as a successful businessman both qualities could serve as a recipe for Elumelu’s unprecedented success as
Nigeria’s Preisdent. But it remains to be seen if Elumelu would fancy the responsibilities of public service.

Aliko-Dangote
Aliko Dangote GCON is a Nigerian billionaire and owner of the Dangote Group, which has interests in commodities in Nigeria and other African countries, including Benin,
Ethiopia, Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Togo, Tanzania, and Zambia. As of February 2017, he had an estimated net worth of US$12.5 billion. Dangote reportedly added $9.2 billion to his personal wealth
in 2013, according to the Bloomberg Index, now making him the 30th richest person in the world, in addition to being the richest person in Africa.
Dangote has expanded to cover food processing, cement manufacturing, and freight. The Dangote Group also
dominates the sugar market in Nigeria and is a major supplier to the country’s soft drink companies, breweries, and confectioners. The Dangote Group has moved from
being a trading company to being the largest industrial group in Nigeria including Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote cement and Dangote Flour.
In November 2011, Dangote was awarded Nigeria’s second highest honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) by the President, Goodluck Jonathan,
In May 2015, Dangote expressed interest in purchasing the English football team Arsenal. He stated that if he was able to make the purchase he would fire the club’s long-standing
manager Arsene Wenger. Dangote was named as the Forbes Africa Person of the Year 2014.
Dangote’s cosmopolitan disposition, visionary and charismatic qualities could be a major positive for him, if he eventually becomes the president of Nigeria. But it remains to be seen if Dangote would fancy the responsibilities of public service.

Akinwumi Adesina
Akinwumi Adesina Akinwumi Adesina is the President of the Africa
Development Bank. He previously served as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. Until his appointment as Minister in 2010, he was Vice President of Policy and Partnerships for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). In 2015, he was elected as the President of the African Development
Bank. He was the first Nigerian to hold the post.
Adesina was named as Forbes African Man of the Year for
his reform of Nigerian agriculture. He introduced more transparency into the fertiliser supply chain. He also said that he would give away mobile phones to farmers but this
proved too difficult. One of the reasons was the lack of a mobile network in country areas.
He was recently named the 2017 World Food Prize Laureate. Announcing the new Laureate, Ambassador Kenneth Quinn , the President of the World Food Prize
Foundation , described Adesina as “someone who grew out of poverty, but whose life mission is to lift up millions of people out of poverty’’.
The prestigious $250,000 prize is given annually to a person
who has worked to advance human development by “improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world”.
Over a 31-year existence, the award has become known as
the “Nobel Prize’’ for Food and Agriculture.

Ngozi Okonjo Iweala
Ngozi Okonjo Iweala Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a Nigerian Economist and its first female minister of Finance.
Okonjo-Iweala served twice as Nigeria’s Finance Minister and also as Minister of Foreign Affairs. She was the first female to hold both positions. During her first term as
Minister of Finance under President Obasanjo’s Administration, she spearheaded negotiations with the Paris Club of Creditors that led to the wiping out of US$30 billion of Nigeria’s debt, including the outright cancellation of US $18 billion
Following her first term as Minister of Finance, she returned to the World Bank as a Managing Director in December 2007. Okonjo-Iweala had also previously spent the first 21 years of her career as a development economist at the World Bank.
As Managing Director, she had oversight responsibility for the World Bank’s $81 billion operational portfolio in Africa, South Asia, Europe and Central As
In 2011, Okonjo-Iweala was reappointed as Minister of Finance in Nigeria with the expanded portfolio of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy by President Goodluck Jonathan. Okonjo-Iweala has received recognition and a number of
awards. She was named one of the “50 Greatest World Leaders” by Fortune magazine in 2015, one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” by Time magazine in 2014, and one of Foreign Policy magazine’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers” in 2012.
Okonjo Iweala’s sound Knowledge and understanding of the Nigerian Economy will be a major positove for her, if she decides to contest for the presidency. With Increasing
Opportunity Gap, Income Inequality, Poverty and massive Unemployment. Okonjo Iweala is certainly one of many Nigerians who can get the job done.

Nasir El Rufai
Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai is the incumbent Governor of Kaduna State.   He was the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja from 16 July 2003 to 29 May 2007. He is a member of All Progressives Congress (APC). As the Governoor of Kaduna state On 6 August 2015, El-Rufai in one of his first acts as governor announced that Kaduna
State will adopt the Treasury Single Account policy by 1 September of the same year. At the end of the exercise, 470 accounts belonging to different ministries, departments and agencies were closed and a sum of N24.7 billion was recovered and remitted to the Kaduna State Government TSA with the Central Bank of Nigeria. El-Rufai also reformed the civil service in Kaduna State and reduced the number of ministries from 19 to 13 and the
number of permanent secretaries from 35 to 18. In a bid to reduce the cost of governance, El-Rufai appointed only 13 commissioners, 10 special advisers and 12 special assistants as against the 24 commissioners, 41 special advisers and about 400 special assistants appointed by the previous administration. By blocking leakages and cutting the cost of running government, it is estimated that the El-Rufai administration was able to save N1.2 billion in just two months.
In January 2016, El-Rufai launched the School Feeding Programme, aimed at providing one free meal per day to 1.5 million pupils in public primary schools within the state.  He
also abolished the collection of fees and levies in public primary and junior secondary schools in Kaduna, thereby removing a financial burden of N3 billion from the parents.
This charismatic, cosmopolitan, suave, visionary, audacious and cerebral gentleman can be the answer to Nigeria’s hope of good governance.

By Oluwaseun Awogbenle
Published November 30, 2017