Muktar Usman Muktari-Janguza (JanguzaArewa)

In this post, I outline four policies and three experimental concepts that I’d implement if in an alternate universe I went to bed and woke up as Nigeria’s President and Commander-in-Chief.  Policies State Organs and Institutions Put on a War Footing  Irakli Toidze’s iconic “Motherland is calling”. A Word War II propaganda poster from the Soviet Union (sovietposters.com). The poster was published in 1941, just after Germany’s invasion of the country. The motherly figure is a personification of the Soviet Union and in her arms the Soviet soldier’s oath of loyalty. Whether we choose to believe it or not, ours is a nation at war! Therefore, I will immediately put every organ of the State – i.e. the ministries, parastatals and State institutions – on a war footing. I will defend this radical move by explaining to my compatriots that we confront an ideologically committed foe whose immediate objective is to carve out an independent state on Nigerian soil. ...

Given dramatic developments in the northeast – Boko Haram mutating into a formidable territorial force; the recent unilateral “ceasefire” agreement announced by the government – a Presidential address in Parliament dealing solely with the now five-year conflict is long overdue.  President Goodluck Jonathan presenting the 2013 budget at a Joint Session of the National Assembly (Today.ng) Whether we choose to believe it or not, Nigeria is at war! Terrorist insurgents have marched into the northeast intent on carving out an independent state. Despite a “State of Emergency” having been in place for 19 months – first declared in May 2013, subsequently extended in November – in the three most affected northeastern states, Boko Haram has still widened and deepened its control over large parts of the SoE states. The group now controls at least 16 towns and villages – from a map recently published by Stratfor – and as much as 25 towns and villages – according to a recent estimat...