My vote will go to the candidate who commits to delivering at least 70 per cent of the following blueprint reform within a strict five-year tenure. This agenda features critical actions that require zero new funding, but only requires a president who places national security and good governance above political patronage.
As the countdown to the 2027 presidential election begins, Nigeria finds itself at a familiar, exhausting crossroads. The same cheap political rhetoric and empty promises are already spinning into motion. Yet, the reality remains stark: Nigeria’s recent headlines on insecurity and economic decline mirror those of a decade ago. Our national debate still focuses heavily on which crisis is worse, rather than diagnosing why they persist. Poverty, terrorism, illicit financial flows, money laundering, human trafficking, public-sector corruption, weak budgeting, broken procurement, ineffective political-finance regulation by INEC, and growing government waste all remain stubbornly unresolved.
To break this cycle, voters must demand structural revolution. To paraphrase Dr Shakir Balogun, a competent state must be capable of building systems, enforcing rules, supporting productive sectors, and thinking long-term. My vote will go to the candidate who commits to delivering at least 70 per cent of the following blueprint reform within a strict five-year tenure. This agenda features critical actions that require zero new funding, but only requires a president who places national security and good governance above political patronage.
I. True Federalism, Restructuring and Sub-National Accountability
- Fiscal Autonomy and Revenue Split (Year One Target): Enable a constitutional amendment that enthrones full fiscal federalism, in which states retain at least 80 per cent of the revenues generated locally, while remitting a maximum of 20 per cent to the Federal Government. Forcing states to generate their own wealth is the only way to spark true sub-national economic productivity.
- Sub-National Transparency and Audit Mandates (Year Two Target): Grant State Offices of the Auditor-General full financial and administrative autonomy. Appointment and removal must be subject to confirmation by the State Houses of Assembly and protected by fixed tenure, independent budgeting, and transparent public reporting.
- Devolution and Citizenship (Year Two Target): Conclude constitutional amendments granting states complete autonomy to manage local government areas. Concurrently, replace the outdated “State of Origin” concept with “State of Residence” to guarantee equal citizenship and eliminate local discrimination.
- Public Sector Efficiency (Year One Target): Establish an independent Bureau for Public Sector Efficiency immediately upon taking office to audit, merge, or abolish at least 70 per cent of federal agencies within the first 12 months. All states should be mandated to establish an identical bureau to slash sub-national waste.
- Divestment from Sub-National Sectors (Year Three Target): Execute a phased, three-year withdrawal plan to completely remove the Federal Government from involvement in agriculture, extractive industries, and local road construction, leaving these entirely to states and private concessionaires under strict federal regulatory standards.
- Decentralised Funding (Year One Target): Enact a legislative overhaul in the first year requiring states to directly fund the salaries, allowances, and entitlements of their federal legislators, while immediately dissolving regional development commissions in favour of voluntary, bilateral or multilateral state development pacts.
II. National Security and Law Enforcement Reform
- Border Protection (Year One Target): Establish a dedicated National Border Security Agency focused entirely on high-tech border surveillance and territorial integrity, while restricting the Nigeria Customs Service strictly to trade facilitation and the Nigeria Immigration Service to migration management.
- Demilitarising Internal Security (Year One Target): Initiate an immediate command directive to systematically withdraw the military from routine internal security operations, returning domestic safety to a reformed Nigerian Police Force.
- State Policing (Year One Target): Pass the necessary constitutional amendments in the first year to legalise autonomous State Police forces entirely free from federal operational control, giving governors the clear legal authority to secure their territories.
- Military-to-Civilian Transfers (Year Two Target): Launch a comprehensive retraining and placement framework by the second year to facilitate the structured transfer of qualified, demobilised military personnel into upgraded civilian law enforcement agencies.
III. Anti-Corruption, Data and Electoral Integrity
- Biometric Identity and Elections (Year Two Target): Finalise the absolute consolidation of tax, banking, address, and communication data into a single national biometric digital identity system. This system must serve as a data tool for national planning and the mandatory, legally non-negotiable threshold for participating in all subsequent elections.
- Policy Continuity (Year One Target): Draft, debate, and pass a legally binding 10-year National Development Plan within the first 12 months to insulate critical infrastructure projects from shifting political whims.
- Political Accountability (Year Two Target): Secure a constitutional amendment introducing a single, non-renewable five-year term for the president, governors, and local government chairmen, permanently eliminating the governance distractions and desperation of second-term campaign cycles.
- Aggressive Enforcement (Year Two Target): Achieve peak operational scaling of a fully funded EFCC, ICPC, and CCB, equipping them with advanced forensic tools and backing them with comprehensive public interest disclosure and whistleblower protection laws to aggressively trace and seize illicit wealth.
IV. Monetary Policy and Financial Inclusion
- Sub-National Fiscal Sustainability (Year Two Target): Enact and strictly enforce debt-to-revenue limits for state governments to halt predatory sub-national borrowing, requiring independent state auditor-generals to publish verified quarterly balance sheets.
- Fintech and Digital Integration (Year Two Target): Overhaul financial legislation to fully integrate digital payment systems and mobile banking into the formal economic net, bringing millions of unbanked, rural citizens into the formal tax and credit architecture.
V. National Identity and Civic Responsibility
- NYSC Redesign (Year One Target): Complete the physical and curriculum overhaul of the National Youth Service Corps by the second year, transforming it into a mandatory post-secondary civic formation programme centred on nationalism, strict discipline, vocational expertise, and basic military orientation. JAMB and other pre-university examinations should be seamlessly conducted, while candidates are actively enrolled in the scheme.
VI. Energy, Infrastructure and Industrial Development
- Grid Decentralisation (Year Three Target): Fully break the federal monopoly on the centralised power architecture, allowing states to independently generate, transmit, and distribute electricity, while renegotiating legacy power sector agreements to protect national economic interests.
- Unshackling Infrastructure (Year One Target): Finalise legal and public-private concession frameworks within the first year that grant coastal states the absolute right to develop, own, and operate deep seaports, while empowering all states to build rail networks and airports, without seeking bureaucratic permission from Abuja.
Nigeria needs drastic reform. The candidate who can pledge to deliver at least 70 per cent of these hard truths on this exact timeline is the only one who deserves our trust, and our vote, to lead.
Umar Yakubu is the executive director of Center for Fiscal Transparency and Public Integrity.