Nigeria : 5 Things Buhari Must Do Immediately If He Wins

- Or, Five Things President Jonathan Should Have Done - But Didn't

"Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it." - George Santayana. 

It's three days to Nigeria's elections and nobody knows for sure which man will emerge winner of the elections. This is a good thing; in the past, the electorates almost always knew. The APC has put up a good fight, an emulous battle that has seen the PDP sit up so smartly - achieving in six weeks things they were averse to contemplating in six years.

Whatever the outcome at the polls on Saturday, one cannot deny the fact that the ground has shifted under both parties - the PDP and the APC. The power of the incumbent has been dented in the melee, and the APC will need to sustain the momentum it has built, no matter the outcome of the elections.

With that said, we have allowed ourselves a little speculation on the side of the opposition. If General Muhammadu Buhari manages to, despite all odds, clinch the presidential seat and oust President Jonathan from office, it would be a victory for the opposition and its supporters.

Several political analysts would laud it as a victory for democracy, after the philosophy that 'these politicians need to know that if you do not perform, we would remove you from power! Power is truly in the hands of the people.' The cheers would be deafening.

However, when the camaraderie has dissipated somewhat, General Buhari will be faced with the task of solidifying his support and winning over skeptics (there will be a lot of those!)

We think the following places are good enough as far as beginnings go, and they would help shoot his ratings high:

1. Empower the EFCC as an institution, not as a personality cult centre. This is arguably where President Jonathan failed. The idea behind EFCC was a great one, but it became tainted when it became more about Ribadu than about the EFCC itself.

2. Ask for more international help to fight Boko Haram. It's high time Nigeria had a healthy bite of the humble pie and actively sought international help. A means of countering suicide bombers should also be planned.

3. Implement a plan to deal with the welfare of the Nigerian police force and build an intelligence service geared towards catching crime before they occur, or at least escalate.

4. Look at the Confab report and implement the good ideas. The confab so far looks like it was a waste of time and public funds, but Buhari can capitalize on it to give the average Nigerian the impression that he is very people-focused. He might want to try his hand at the idea of referendums too.

5. Bring in the expertise to tackle power: The NCP presidential candidate, for example (Engineer Martin Onovo) is someone who looks like he knows something about power. Buhari should outsource power projects to competent hands and make everything transparent. The privatization should be done with more adroitness, transparency and observable benchmarks. If done right, this aspect alone may shoot up the general's, shall we say, 'street cred.'