Politicians

If you vote me into office, I will

• Provide Free Health for all
• Provide Free Education for all up to secondary school level
• Tar all the roads in the state
• Resuscitate NEPA (PHC). Nigerians will have 24 hour power supply just like you have outside the country
• Clear all Pension Arrears. Why should our parents suffer after having worked hard for their motherland?
• Provide free transportation for all school children.
• There will be adequate security for everyone. Why do we have to live in prisons in our own houses?
• All unemployed youths will be given jobs. Nobody will be unemployed in my administration. We will create jobs for everyone.
• Utopia, Utopia, Utopia…

Oga/Madam Politician, my question is

• How?
• How do you intend to create this your heaven on earth?
• How are you going to perform all the miracles you have listed above?

You just told us that

• 90% of State allocation is spent on salaries leaving nothing for capital expenditures. So where will you get the money for free everything?
• You only have a finite amount of money and people, so how will you concentrate on all the areas above at the same time?

All our politicians do is to promise the electorate heaven on earth, free and the best of everything. They don’t tell us how they intend to do it. We don’t see a plan no matter how high-level of how they are going to achieve all these. It seems we the public are satisfied just to hear that we are going to get free services, we don’t care to ask detailed questions. When these politicians now get into power, we don’t get any of these things.
For sure we see a few things initially. This is usually targeted for the celebration of their first 100 days in office. After that, everything vanishes.
The next phase after the 100 days in office celebration is the blame game.

• The previous administration stole all the money when they were leaving.
• We need to do proper stock taking of current situation to determine our action plan, blah blah.. blah

We need to put a stop to all this!
We need to start asking

• How?
• When?
• Where?

How will you make sure there are only 24 students per teacher in our secondary schools?
How will you fund the free health care you have promised us?
When will we have 24 hour power supply?
When can we start walking the streets by 8.pm without fear of being molested?
Where are we going to board the buses for the free transportation program...?

And please Oga/Madam politician, do not tell us “PRIVATISATION”
That seems to be the magic wand being touted now by the latest crop of politicians. Yes, you can privatize but how do you plan to do that? How much are you expecting from the privatization process? We need to know if the figures add up. For all we know the figure expected is just a mere 10% of the total fund needed. Nobody will buy a company that has been run into the ground. Not everything should be privatized. Government also has a responsibility to provide some social services to its people.
So please Oga/Madam politician, spare us the magic wand PRIVATISATION, unless you can support it with facts.


Donald Duke, the present governor of Cross River State is contesting for the presidency. He has a blog - http://donaldduke.blogspot.com
On his blog, he has his plan for how he expects to turn the educational system in his state around. He says he has been following this plan so far in his two terms in office. On the surface, the plan is logical. Other people may question it and send him feedback which he can then either use or discard. At least we know what he plans to do and how he plans to do it. If he doesn't do it when he finally gets the chance, we can vote him out next time.

Donald Duke has articulated his points/plans on his blog. I was impressed by the fact that he has a blog. Yes, a blog! It shows he’s targeting the younger generation (who seems to be the bulk of bloggers) and it shows he’s moving with the times. At least, there is hope that he won’t become the president and start recycling archaic solutions.

That is what we expect our politicians to do. Show us how you intend to fulfill all your promises. We don’t need the detailed plan. After all, you are not yet in power. It’s your concept that we will critique to decide if we should follow you or not.

And dare I say that any politician, who does not have a blog or website (WITH MEANINGFUL CONTENT), should not be trusted with our votes. I mean, if you can’t use the latest tool , which seems to have caught on everywhere (even if you don't know about it,one of your team members should know - i.e. if you have the right kind of people on your team), how do we know you will still not be proposing 1st Generations Solutions when the world has moved on to 4th Generation Solutions?

So please once a politician promises “FREE XYZ…”, ask him “HOW?”