By Sunny Ikhioya
Nigeria’s problem is not its people or what some will call the ‘curse of the Black man’. The problem is simply a leader that will put aside religious, ethnic and other primordial sentiments to build a unified nation of one purpose, goal and prosperity. In other words, to build a nation of patriotic Nigerians. You cannot say you love Nigeria and be destroying properties that belong to the commonwealth.
You cannot say you love Nigeria and be killing and kidnapping your fellow Nigerians. You cannot say you love Nigeria and be stealing what belongs to everyone. That is the dilemma the nation is facing; having a leader who can bring together all of these contending forces and project their combined strength to the whole world. That is basically our challenge.
We have had so many pretenders
to the throne. When you scratch their surfaces, their true being begins to
emerge. This country will never attain its true potentials if we fail to face
the truth and confront it. We must know our true history; where we are coming
from, the obstacles on our way and how we can overcome them.
The world is very apprehensive
of the potentials that this nation carries, which when harnessed will shift the
paradigm of our global standing. But it is a matter of when, as it will surely
happen; you cannot pull back the hands of time. Nigeria is already a great
nation when viewed from the performance of those of us in the diaspora
world; very soon they will have to find their way home.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu is presently the President of Nigeria and he is taking so many decisions that seem to resonate well with the people. However distasteful this might be, the people seem to understand the purpose for it, they are smiling in pain, with hope for a better future. He is creating the impression that he is equal to the task; he said we should not pity him as he was the one that asked for the job and campaigned for it. He has taken so many decisions in so short a time with the military tradition of “immediate effect".
But one cannot help but ask this
compelling question: what is propelling President Tinubu to take these bold
decisions that his predecessors quietly side stepped throughout their tenures?
Is he trying to convey a message to the citizens? Are they borne out of genuine
and heartfelt concern for the pitiable condition of this nation? Is it to get
back at elements that have been cogs in the wheel of his attempt to attain his
lifetime ambition? In other words, is he merely exhibiting hubris, which is
naked power?
With the battle for the
Presidency still in the arena of our courts, is he doing all of these to win
the sympathy of the people and thereby conferring his government with
legitimacy status? The last question is very relevant, given the circumstances
under which he won the election, winning one-third of the votes, as against the
two-thirds of the combined opposition.
Which, in reality, is telling us
that the people who voted against Tinubu in the elections were more than those
who voted for him, a situation that was necessitated by the divisions in the
opposition camps. Whatever it is, he should be encouraged to go through with it
to get the desired result. This is because, some of us are beginning to wonder
if it will not be the usual flash in the pan; after a while everything settles
down and we all go back to business as usual. That will be the challenge of the
Tinubu government.
We are worried because of the
manner his government stood behind the candidacy of Godswill Akpabio as Senate
President, a man with so much controversies surrounding him. Akpabio is an
intelligent man and did well as governor but his handling of the Niger Delta
ministry leaves much to be desired. We are hoping that the patriotic side of
him will be deployed while he serves as Senate President.
The arrests and detention of
Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank and Abdulrasheed Bawa, Chairman
of Economic and financial crimes commission, EFCC, have already sparked
orgasmic pleasure amongst some people. But, beyond the euphoria, we must be
clear on the motives for their arrests; it must be free from revenge and
victimisation. All of these must be done transparently, you do not remove a
sitting Central Bank governor without a transparent investigation. Why is the
Directorate of State Security, DSS, doing the investigation?
Will President Bola Tinubu have the guts to probe the behemoth NNPC, with
its powerful subsidiaries, opaque modes of operations, sometimes working at
cross purposes with other key agencies of government to the detriment of the
nation’s well-being? Have we actually looked at the areas of leakages,
especially in the NNPC?
Some of us are of the position that
we should have sorted out these leakages of revenue before the hurriedly
withdrawn fuel subsidy. Yes, because the figures that have been bandied about
by the NNPC all of these years cannot be accepted as the true picture. Some are
also of the opinion that we are losing revenues from the operations of the NPA,
NIMASA, CUSTOMS and other revenue generating agencies of the Federal
Government. First, let us block these leakages and see what we can generate
from there.
We should also pay attention to
our civil service operations, including the National Assembly. Every agency of
government must be made to cut costs; it is not every time that you resort to
imposing taxes on the people for a few corrupt people to fritter away. The
businesses and citizens have suffered so much; imposing taxes on the people is
not always the solution to our problems; we must first create the enabling
environment for businesses to thrive and create jobs.
When people have jobs, they will
pay taxes; that is the pattern, job first before taxes. We know that Tinubu is
an expert in tax management; but we must be careful with the way we implement
taxes at the federal level. The Lagos State that we are glamourising so much
about today has no room for the poor man who cannot cope because of hardship
caused by high taxes and tough conditions for living in the state. The reality
is that there is no room for slackers and lazy persons in Lagos; everyone is a
hustler.
So, at the federal level, we
must first tackle the leakages, everyone must be willing to make sacrifices;
the National Assembly must be ready to shed weight; same for the presidency,
governors and down to the local governments. We must learn to use government
fund for real governance, for the benefit of the people instead of the greed and
personal aggrandisement that our leaders are known for.
For Tinubu to succeed,
this must be extended to our military architecture and processes; without peace
there cannot be development anywhere. We must set key performance indices for
our military leaders and make it a condition for their retention; there must be
no sacred cow.
Finally, we can see many of
those who put us in this situation, lobbying to become top officials of the
Tinubu government; he must avoid this banana peel; leopards do no change their
spots; allow the corrupt old brigades to stay away. The Tinubu government
can attain legitimacy if he truly follows through these reforms to its logical
conclusion.
*Ikhioya
is a commentator on public issues
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