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TEN BIG IDEAS t's early days yet, in the life of a new I government. The voters have played their part by finally getting rid of a catastrophically inept and almost certainly corrupt president. It is now time for our new leaders to play theirs. Political life is generally characterized by high hopes rapidly followed by crushing disappointment. And if this is to be our fate, then why not be disappointed by failure to achieve lofty goals? There's honour in failing while tackling the impossible. Failing at small potatoes, on the other hand, is a destroyer of the soul. Cliches are sometimes useful, so lets employ a few. Go big or go home. Shoot for the moon. Swing for the rafters. Or, as the impossibly ambitious motto of Modakeke High School declares, aut optimum at nihil: Either the best or nothing. AGENDA Nigeria TEN BIG IDEAS: AN AMBITIOUS AGENDA FOR NIGERIA’S NEW LEADERSBY DELE OLOJEDE SO, HERE ARE MY TEN BIG IDEAS FOR THE NEXT TEN YEARS:

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TEN BIGIDEAS

t's early days yet, in the life of a new

Igovernment. The voters have played their part by finally getting rid of a

catastrophically inept and almost certainly corrupt president. It is now time for our new leaders to play theirs.Political life is generally characterized by high hopes rapidly followed by crushing disappointment. And if this is to be our fate, then why not be disappointed by failure to achieve lofty goals? There's

honour in failing while tackling the impossible. Failing at small potatoes, on the other hand, is a destroyer of the soul.Cliches are sometimes useful, so lets employ a few. Go big or go home. Shoot for the moon. Swing for the rafters. Or, as the impossibly ambitious motto of Modakeke High School declares, aut optimum at nihil: Either the best or nothing.

AGENDANigeria

TEN BIG IDEAS: AN AMBITIOUS AGENDA FOR NIGERIA’S NEW LEADERSBY DELE OLOJEDE

SO, HERE ARE MY TEN BIG IDEAS FOR THE NEXT TEN YEARS:

e have gas fields holding Wdeposits that are pre�y

much inexhaus�ble for our

domes�c purposes for the next several

genera�ons. Pipe it across the country

from the coast, to fuel new power

plants. I will not go so far as to say forget

about coal and hydro and solar and

wind— those are useful too, but with the

excep�on of coal, are largely bou�que

opera�ons, at least for our immediate

needs. Those should be pursued by local

authori�es for the purpose of plugging

gaps in the system. Gas is cheap; gas is

environmentally be�er than coal, and

we have enough of it to power the whole

of West Africa, of which more later.

And then we need a new grid. The other

big gap in our plans to generate and

deliver enough power to the economy is

an an�quated grid that currently can't

carry adequate power where it's

needed— even if we manage to

generate what we need.

Layered on top of that grid should be a

dense fibre op�c network, delivering

blisteringly fast connec�vity— the

lifeblood of the modern economy— to

all parts of the country. Let's make

bandwidth a commodity— a cheap,

ubiquitous commodity— and set the

people free. It removes one big obstacle

to unleashing the ingenuity of our young

popula�on. We have no telecoms legacy.

We leapt straight to digital mobile from

almost no fixed lines. We oldies won't

necessarily know what to do, but the

youngsters know, believe me. Free

them. Let freedom ring. From the

towering plateaus of Adamawa to the

mangrove swamps of the Delta, let

freedom ring.

And finally possibly the most important

of the Four Lines— a railroad network

built substan�ally from scratch. Hire a

rail czar. Set a big objec�ve for our

country to build 10,000 kilometers of

railroad over the next 10 years. We have

enough financial engineers to figure out

how to pay for it. We need real engineers

to build it. Let's not be stupid. Let's go

find them wherever on the blessed

planet they happen to be. Put hundreds

of thousands of Nigerians to work laying

steel and wood and clearing forests and

surmoun�ng ravines. Work 24 hours a

day with three-shi� crews. Measure

progress daily, weekly, monthly and

y e a r l y. L e t t h e w h o l e c o u n t r y

collaborate, for a change, in building

something substan�al together.

Start work crews in Maiduguri and

Calabar and Lagos and Sokoto. More

than 100 years ago the Sultan pleaded

with the Brits to bypass Sokoto as the old

colonial rail line sneaked up from the

coast, fearful that it would bring

unwelcome modernity and rank

degenerates to his domain. The result is

that the line terminated at Kaura

Namoda. Sokoto became a backwater,

largely economically isolated and

subsequently it withered on the vine.

Ci�es such as Kano and Maiduguri, plus

the upstart Kaduna, soon surpassed

Sokoto in importance. Today Sokoto has

a few baobabs and a Sultan. Who cares

about baobabs and Sultans? Set the

people free. Give them a chance to make

a living and educate their children. Bring

a new express train to Sokoto (and to

Mambilla Plateau and my good old

hometown of Modakeke.) Connect the

whole of our country. Move people and

goods cheaply and safely. Put the people

to work. 10,000 kilometers in 10 years.

Go big. Do something useful. Don't be a

stupid poli�cian. Be a builder. Lead.

FOUR LINES TO HEAVEN

BUILD THE FOUR LINES

FROM WHICH WILL RISE

A MODERN, WEALTHY

COUNTRY: GAS LINES,

GRID LINES, FIBRE LINES

AND RAIL LINES.

hen Kennedy saw the Russians send the Sputnik Winto space, the young president boldly

announced that America was going to put man

on the moon within a decade. Was he absolutely certain this

was achievable? No. Instead, he knew he led a country with a

can-do spirit, and if you set the goal large enough and

impossible enough, the humans of America (of that �me)

would find a way to achieve it. Within seven years of the

speech, Neil Armstrong took 'one small step for man; a giant

leap for mankind.'

So how about this rela�vely modest proposal? President

Buhari should go out on a limb and announce that every

Nigerian man, woman and child, in every village and every

hamlet, in every town and every city, will be biometrically

iden�fiable in a giant data base within the next four years. He

should then hire the people, and recruit the allies and

collaborators, to deliver this biometric na�onal ID card to

every Nigerian. The Indians are a�emp�ng it right now. But

we are be�er than the Indians! We are be�er, certainly, than

the retrograde Americans and Europeans and can leapfrog

every na�on to establish without a doubt who we are, how

many we are, where we live, what our ages are, what we do,

and thus unlock the door to progress.

A na�onal biometric ID for every 180 million of us changes

everything. Put simply, it means we are no longer flying blind.

It means we know for sure how many children will enter the

school system next year and the year a�er. It means we can

measure. This is the biggest of all Big Data. We will know how

many have prostate cancer or live in the ci�es or �ll the soil or

work in the government. It will mean the end of ghost

workers and ghost hospitals. My friends in Kaduna, racing at

warp speed to rescue their state, just recently discovered

en�re ghost schools, complete with ghost principals and

teachers, but somehow earning cold hard cash. It may be true

that there's no magic bullet on earth, but this is as close as

you are going to get to one.

Impact on the banking system and availability of credit?

Immeasurable. Crime preven�on and control? Planning for

public housing or mass transit or public health? Government

transparency? Elec�on integrity? Please, people. This is a no-

brainer. Sure there are poten�al downsides, especially

around privacy. But we are smart enough to figure out how to

mi�gate that. See clearly what is before you. We can have at

DIGITAL NATION

...LEAPFROG EVERY NATION TO ESTABLISH

WITHOUT A DOUBT WHO WE ARE, HOW

MANY WE ARE, WHERE WE LIVE, WHAT

OUR AGES ARE, WHAT WE DO, AND THUS

UNLOCK THE DOOR TO PROGRESS.

least 99% of Nigerians biometrically iden�fied by the

�me the next elec�on rolls around. And that is in less

than four years.

Impossible, you say? Wrong. Do the math. We are

approximately 180 million people (we will know for

sure a�er this exercise.) The electoral commission

already can posi�vely iden�fy around 80 million of

us. The banks have another 50 million or so, from the

recent mandatory account verifica�on exercise.

Much of the sprawling federal civil service also has,

what, another 3 or four million? Then you have the

inept na�onal ID agency, which has managed to issue

fewer than 10 million over the past 30 years. (The

agency officials recently rushed to the president's

office to issue him his very own ID, completely

missing the irony.)

If you put it all together, that's roughly 150 million

instances of posi�ve iden�fica�on. Now let us

assume there is significant overlap, say of 50 million,

right now, today, you already have 100 million

Nigerians you can posi�vely iden�fy, without a

shadow of doubt. You just didn't know you could.

Integrate all these databases. Then over the next four

years use the law to roll in those outside the system.

Every school enrollment, every a�empt to register a

business or buy an air �cket or get on an Ekene Dili

Chukwu bus, or check into a hotel or a hospital, or

receive fer�lizer from agric support workers, or

obtain a loan or drive a motor vehicle— all will

require a na�onal ID. You may not even need four

years to cover 99% of your popula�on. Recruit

Google as a collaborator if you must. Or Microso�. Or

my friends toiling diligently in the fields all over India.

Don't stand guilty of pusillanimity. Kennedy put man

on the moon, but only a�er he was already dead. This

you can do in your life�mes. Act now. Don't be a

disgrace to coming genera�ons of African people.

To deploy another useful cliche, this is a GAME

CHANGER.

he president and his new cabinet (where is the Teconomic team??) should set a target of achieving a per

capita GDP of $10,000 over the next 25 years— or 10%

GDP growth per year for the next 25 years. Think about it; if you

did this, no one could ever accuse you, ever again, of being low-

life, dissembling, unambi�ous poli�cians. This is the big one,

people. Clear goals concentrate the mind, and extended

concentra�on yields solu�ons. Figure it out. Faithfully

implemen�ng 'Four Lines To Heaven' (Big Idea #1) is

guaranteed to get you there.

Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. We need this more than

anything, because here, my fellow ci�zens, we are talking

about li�ing 100 million people out of absolute poverty. We all

know, or should know, that poverty is man-made, and so is

wealth. Read Karl Popper. But read Armatya Sen too. Assemble

the people who can get this done, whether Nigerian or not. Do

not mistake the means for the end. Poverty is a crime against

humanity. Each day that extreme poverty is not being single-

mindedly eliminated from the beloved country is each day that

our leaders are commi�ng a crime. Come on, people. Are we

not now Nigerians? Do we lack the balls to solve gigan�c

problems? Stealing oil money is cheap. Giving a child a chance

to grow to his fullest poten�al, now that is a job for real men

(and many more real women

TURBOCHARGE

THE ECONOMY

DUMP OILDUMP OIL

et out of the oil business, now. GThe government, for our

purposes and in recogni�on of

our circumstances, should get the hell

out of oil. The cheap money has

poisoned us. Perspec�ve has been lost,

though not irretrievably. There are

stories of $700m in cash being found in

the home of the former oil minister.

Credible allega�ons abound of billions

of dollars stolen, perhaps as much as

$150 billion over the last 10 years from

the oil sector alone. We have enough

wealth to go round if only we have some

bold leaders. We wouldn't need Save

The Children to deliver mosquito nets to

our villages because we can already

afford it— if we don't steal the money

first.

Here is my logic: oil is a commodity, like

wheat, or groundnuts or rice or

tanzanite. Why is the government not in

the bread business? Or the tanzanite

business? Or the orange juice business?

Or the pork bellies business? There is

nothing special about oil! Apple is not in

the oil business, and Apple has cash

reserves of $150 billion. Nigeria, in

totality, has cash reserves of about $40

billion. Wake up! Oil is killing you. Get

out while you s�ll can. Spin off the

na�onal oil company, the NNPC, and list

it in London. Force it to follow the rules.

London is admi�edly crooked, but not

quite as crooked as Abuja and Port

Harcourt. Sell off your other joint

venture assets via auc�on. That includes

your half of NLNG, the giant gas concern,

which alone gives you some $40 billion

in cash. Roll the cash into implemen�ng

'Four Lines To Heaven.' Read Ibn

Khaldoun's 'The Muqaddimah.' Heed my

words, O King. Tax the oil company. And

you don't need to tax them any more

than they are taxed in various countries,

including what the US government calls

the 'windfall tax,' for when the oil gusher

is really pumping cash. Tax the sector as

any other business. You will a�ract more

investment and your tax revenues will

leap. You will make more money than

you are doing now, and also, just as

important, you will drain the swamp.

Crooked people always end up being in

charge no ma�er what you do. The cash

is too free, too large, and too temp�ng.

Under its influence, even good people

don't remain good for long. Shut down

that pipe.

This takes real courage to do, Mr.

President, because it goes against your

own ins�nct and experience from 40

years ago. It also is difficult because all

your allies will be whispering in your

ears, sounding all sweet and reasonable,

using such stock phrases as “na�onal

interest,” “commanding heights” of the

economy, “local control,” “na�onal

des�ny,” “strategic sector.” You may

safely dismiss all of this nonsense. These

are people who by and large are thinking

'It's Our Turn To Eat,' to borrow the �tle

of John Githongo's book about poli�cal

corrup�on in Kenya. Oil by itself alone

means nothing to us, Mr. President. It is

not the end that we seek, only one

means of ge�ng there. Our objec�ve is

to have the resources to build our

ci�zens, real ci�zens, so that they in turn

can build a real country. Our objec�ve is

not to control oil, but to generate the

revenue from that and numerous other

sources so we can accelerate the efforts

to modernize our country. Oil is no more

important than roasted plantain; you

just make more money from it more

quickly. Be a regulator. Be a very good

(and wise) regulator. Do not be a

regulator and an operator at the same

�me. No ma�er your good inten�ons,

you will never be able to rise above that

inherent contradic�on. Again, I implore

you to read Ibn Khaldoun. I am happy to

send you a copy.

DUMP OIL

et's state this very clearly: it is insane to centralise ALL Lpolicing func�ons. How do you fight burglary, rape,

noise, sanita�on viola�on, illegal occupa�on, traffic

viola�on, pickpockets and neighbourhood gangs, from a

command and control centre in the federal capital?

Policing is a local func�on. It belongs at the local level, just as

most of its du�es at the moment are actually cons�tu�onally

allocated to local authori�es. Burglary is not a federal

func�on. Nor is trespassing. Let us, carefully but not

ponderously slowly, return most policing func�ons to state

governments. The best and cleanest way to do this, perhaps,

is simply to dissolve the current Nigerian Police department,

and send its various components to the states where they are

already deployed. The government of a state should have law

enforcement capabi l i�es ( in addi�on to taxa�on

responsibili�es), without which it cannot be properly called a

government. In colonial �mes and the first five years or so of

independence, policing func�ons resided almost en�rely at

the local level. Our history of military coups has centralised

everything and debased the system.

Some will argue that this might be too vola�le, that we have

too many demented state governors and sundry potentates,

and they will simply use police to repress their opponents. I

say, perhaps. But we are not without means. First, let's run a

pilot in two obvious territories, Lagos and Abuja, maybe

Kaduna too. Vest policing func�ons fully in the respec�ve

governments. Lets see how things work out over three years,

then set another five years to slowly transfer the police

apparatus to the remaining state governments, based on a

readiness cer�fica�on by the a�orney general. Second, let

the centre legally retain claw-back powers in cases of

egregious abuse. In other words, upon the cer�fica�on of the

a�orney general, the federal government can legally

(re)assume direct control of the police in a par�cular state

where extraordinary abuse of police powers has been

established. You could also subject the a�orney general's

cer�fica�on to a valida�on by a federal appeals court panel,

to prevent poten�al abuse even by the a�orney general.

Some may recall that, at the height of the civil rights

movement in 1960s United States, the a�orney general

(Robert Kennedy) 'federalized' the na�onal guards (normally

under control of the state governor) when some governors in

the south (Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, among others)

openly disobeyed court rulings to let black students a�end

university with whites. One of the more famous pictures from

the era is of my sister Charlayne Hunter-Gault, the long�me

New York Times, CNN, and New Yorker Magazine

correspondent, who can be seen in those old black and white

photos being escorted to class by federalized guards at the

University of Georgia :Dignified, beau�ful African woman

braving the feral dogs of white supremacy.

What we need is nothing less than a complete refurbishment

of the state, so that it can work for the ordinary ci�zen. We

can do this. Or else we can tell the same old stories of

impotence to our grandchildren in 10 years �me.

RETURN TO LOCAL POLICE

bet many people are just finding out Ifor the first �me, as the new cabinet

is slowly assembled, that the

cons�tu�on requires the president to

choose at least one cabinet minister

from each of the 36 states of the

federa�on.

Each �me I reflect upon this, I have new

respect for the many talents of my

country for self-injury. Naturally,

Nigerian poli�cians, fashioned from the

same crooked s�ck as poli�cians

everywhere, have taken full advantage

of this to name unwieldy cabinets the

size of all soccer players in the English

Premier League combined. A number of

years ago I was part of a team from the

Aspen Ins�tute that presided over a

two-day leadership seminar for

President Olusegun Obasanjo's second

term cabinet. My friend Nasir El-Rufai,

then minister of the federal capital and

now governor of Kaduna State, had

asked us to do it. Now a typical Aspen

leadership seminar is designed as a

Socra�c dialogue among 20-25 people

si�ng at a round table as if at Plato's

Academy in Athens, with ideas bouncing

back and forth like a ping pong— “a

dialogue, not a monologue,” as my old

friend Keith Berwick is fond of saying.

But Obasanjo showed up with 76

cabinet and cabinet-level officers in an

auditorium, with himself at the high

table, pon�fica�ng for two long days.

Clearly a cabinet of 76 is no cabinet at all.

Let us do the sensible thing and slash the

cabinet to no more that 18 ministers. We

should of course remove the offending

cons�tu�onal provision but, this being a

cumbersome process, we can in the

m e a n � m e d e c l a r e m a n y k e y

departments as cabinet-level agencies

without in reality being actually part of

the cabinet, as a workaround. The

cabinet should be built for delibera�on

and for se�ng priori�es in the execu�ve

branch. It should not be a bazaar of

dozens of people mee�ng once a week

for the purpose, as it has been thus far,

of ra�fying contracts and preening for

the presiden�al affec�on. The old

western region, roughly one-quarter of

the country, was run by 12 ministers and

a premier, and they delivered free

educa�on and built probably the most

egalitarian corner of our country. Now

we have a central government with high

officials and 'honorables' coming out the

wazoo, and 36 state governments with

hundreds and thousands of 'big man'

officials complete with police outriders

and flashing blue lights and wailing

sirens, the best to impress the wretched

mul�tudes.

Can we just calm down and drama�cally

shrink everything? Look for the smartest

people, and let them run things, without

caring too much whether they speak

Igbo or come from the savannah.

Geography is not des�ny. Keep the goal

clearly in front of you. Are you trying to

educate children? Does it ma�er if the

math teacher is from Ghana? Are you

trying to fly a plane from Calabar to

Kano? Does it ma�er if the pilot is from

Kafanchan? Is the Central Bank governor

highly competent and of sound mind

and character? Does it ma�er if he is

Kanuri?

We shouldn't even have to be discussing

this, but here we are, a benighted and

slightly deranged people trying migh�ly

now (I hope) to get themselves together.

About four years or so ago my wife and I

were invited to the carnival in Rio. Our

hosts threw a nice lunch party at their

splendid apartment overlooking

Ipanema beach. One of the guests was

the Brazilian Central Bank governor. He

was not Brazilian. Gov. El-Rufai has a

couple of Yoruba guys among his senior

aides. He's been under a�ack ever since

for selling the “indigenes” short.

In principle it is preferable to create the

percep�on and, where possible, the

reality of having people from all parts of

our country par�cipa�ng in all spheres

of na�onal life. But this should be a

poli�cally enforceable proposi�on, not a

legally mandated one. The first ques�on

always should be, is the person the best

available for the job? Luckily for us this is

not hard at all. We have talent from

every nook and every cranny of the

beloved country— and millions more in

the Diaspora crea�ng a huge pool of

talent. The US Census bureau reports

t h at N i ge r i a n - b o r n o r N i ge r i a n

descended people in the United States

are the best educated group in the

country, producing per capita people

with more bachelor and graduate

degrees, including PhDs. We have no

shortage of talent if we care to look for it.

The problem is that many people, not

having the requisite diversified social

networks, make too li�le effort to seek

such talent. A lot of people from

southern Nigeria, especially the Lagos

crowd, are guilty of this myopia. Seek,

and ye shall find. Several years ago when

we were trying to build the leadership as

well as other staff of NEXT newspaper,

Amma and I were determined to have

many women running things, in addi�on

to having editors and reporters from all

parts of the country and of a l l

backgrounds, familial and academic. We

achieved something around 40 percent

women, including the editor of the

paper, who also happened to be a Fulani

woman from Kano. We did not have to

sweat too much to get her. We had a

network of friends who naturally

suggested candidates who were from all

over. In this par�cular case, thank you,

William Wallis, for bringing Kadaria

Ahmed to our a�en�on.

SCRAP 'FEDERAL CHARACTER'

liminate all visa or residency requirements for all EECOWAS ci�zens. Allow a completely free flow of

people and goods in our West Africa region. A

poten�al megalopolis of hundreds of millions of people is

already responding to the gravita�onal pull of Lagos along

the coast as far west as Abidjan. Make it a reality. Be bold. If

you are a li�le queasy in the stomach try this for three years

ini�ally and see what tweaks are required. Then go hell for

leather and remove these ar�ficial and ruinous border posts.

Create a single ECOWAS market. You don't necessarily need

to create a single Eco currency. The Nigerian naira, backed by

Africa's largest economy, will be the de facto exchange

instrument anyhow (while preserving the authority of local

central banks to respond to excep�onal situa�ons,

something that could have saved Greece.) While you are at it,

begin construc�on of a Dakar to Douala coastal railway.

You might want to consider going even bigger. Offer

ci�zenship to all Diaspora Africans, par�cularly targe�ng

African Americans, at least those who would like to have it.

Dual ci�zenship is legal in America and Nigeria. Use it. You will

have a powerful cons�tuency in the world's most powerful

country. You will have a steady inflow of talented and

entrepreneurial people. Grant them the 40 acres and a mule,

even if only metaphorically. They are descended from these

parts anyway, so what right do we have to deny them their

birthright? Besides, with such a natural cons�tuency, it would

be hard for the US government to screw with you. Think

Israel. Play smart. It's a win-win.

SET THE PEOPLE FREE

ccount for every square cen�metre of land in the en�re Aterritory of the federal republic. Issue cer�ficates of

occupancy to all iden�fiable land owners. End the

vagueness of communally held land and its capacity to generate

endless dispute and violence. Where a community, rather than an

individual or corporate body, does historically lay claim to the

land, create trusts to legally hold the property. A na�onwide

electronic geographic informa�on system will do more than end

violent disputes and endless court cases; it puts money in people's

pockets by making land easily fungible. My father's house in

Modakeke is worth almost nothing because there is no legal �tle

to it. So is my friend Nosa Igiebor's 1,000-hectare family land in

Benin. Read or reread Hernando DeSoto's 'Mystery of Capital.' It

was relevant yesterday; it is even more so today. Don't make a

mockery of most families' principal asset when this can be turned

into wealth. It is rela�vely easily done. My friend Nasir El-Rufai

accomplished this in Abuja, when he was federal minister of the

Federal Capital territory from 2003-2007. Now that he is governor

of Kaduna State, he's planning to do the same thing. Land is a state

issue, so the federal government can nudge the laggards in the

right direc�on by crea�ng a fund to underwrite electronic land

registra�on for any state that needs help. Stop manufacturing

mass poverty and do the right thing.

THIS LAND IS MY LAND (REALLY)

THIS LAND IS

MY LAND (REALLY)

lease, tone down the big man show. It has worn thin. You don't need a 10-car Pconvoy to move around, accompanied by a thousand police officers. You can fly

economy domes�cally and your spouse will s�ll love you. Carry your own bag.

You don't need to jump the queue at the airport. Stop calling yourselves honourable or

excellency. Let us judge, at the end of your tenure, whether you have been excellent or

honourable. Bring more young people into the highest reaches of government. The

rest of the world knows that your best trained people aged 35-45 are in the sweet spot

for maximum produc�vity. I am older than Barack Obama and David Cameron and

Ma�eo Renzi. Stop this ageist nonsense, my fellow golden oldies. We need high energy

and crea�vity and an ins�nc�ve feel for how today's world works. Our smart young

talent, given massive responsibili�es right now, will be in a posi�on to run the whole

thing in four years' �me.

NEITHER HONOURABLE NOR EXCELLENT BEFORETHE FACT

FOCUS ON SYSTEMICALLY

IMPORTANT ISSUES

his is far more rewarding than dissipa�ng energy on the small stuff. It doesn't take you away Tfrom figh�ng corrup�on or securing the ci�zen against the scourge of casual violence, or

fixing schools or stocking the village dispensary. You can walk and talk at the same �me. I

was going to say you can talk and chew gum at the same �me, but Dr Joe Abbah objected once on

the basis that that it might not present a pre�y picture (he may have used the word 'disgus�ng.').

We have the outlines of a cabinet now. On the surface it doesn't look like the world's strongest

cabinet but there are enough ponies in there to start galvanizing the country in a certain exci�ng

direc�on. There are talented men and women in there. Let's seek perfec�on by all means, but

progress is nothing to be sniffed at either. I can't believe that I find myself quo�ng Donald Rumsfeld,

but it is true that you go to war with the army you've got. Make this moment count. Get to work, my

friends. Lead wisely and well, and we will follow.

Also, try to have dinner most nights with your family and stop lurching from one poli�cal mee�ng

to the other at all hours of night and day. Leave room for slow thinking on an early morning walk.

Read for fun. Learn to play golf. Be exemplary ci�zens and we will take our cue from you.

Prac�ce resurrec�on.

1. FOUR LINES TO HEAVEN 2. DIGITAL NATION3. TURBOCHARGE THE ECONOMY 4. DUMP OIL5. RETURN TO LOCAL POLICE 6. SCRAP 'FEDERAL CHARACTER' 7. SET THE PEOPLE FREE 8. THIS LAND IS MY LAND (REALLY) 9. NEITHER HONOURABLE NOR EXCELLENT BEFORE THE FACT 10: FOCUS ON SYSTEMICALLY IMPORTANT ISSUES

10BIG IDEASOVER TEN YEARS