As Mr. President cools off in London…

 By Casmir Igbokwe

Soon after President Bola Tinubu made a futile attempt to raise the hope of Nigerians in his Independence Day broadcast on October 1, 2024, he jetted out to London on a ‘two-week vacation’. A statement by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, indicated that it’s a working vacation and a retreat to reflect on his administration’s economic reforms. Really!

*Tinubu

Nigerians are used to governance by deceit. Not a few citizens doubted this story about vacationing to reflect on economic reforms. They wondered why the President should travel to London to do that simple task. Are the air conditioners in Aso Villa not cooling his brain well enough? Well, we have to believe because we have no choice. If you protest, security agents could arrest you and slam terrorism charges against you.

 

In his October 1 broadcast, the President reeled out what looked like his administration’s achievements. “As your President,” he enthused, “I assure you that we are committed to finding sustainable solutions to alleviate the suffering of our citizens. Once again, I plead for your patience as the reforms we are implementing show positive signs, and we are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel.”

 

Since the reforms have started showing positive signs, did the President still need to travel to London to reflect on them? The truth is that there is no light at the end of any tunnel. Rather, what we see is darkness in a tunnel that appears to have no end.

Tinubu claimed his government attracted over $30 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the past one year. Please, where do we have these investments? In dream or in reality? I am not an economist, but as far as I know, we have witnessed more of companies leaving Nigeria than the so-called FDI.

 

GlaxoSmithKline, Procter & Gamble and many others left our shores for good. Their exit led to the loss of thousands of jobs.

Our President also claimed stability and predictability in the foreign exchange market due to the more disciplined approach adopted by the Central Bank of Nigeria to monetary policy management. He boasted about paying back our inherited forex backlog of $7 billion and clearing the ways and means debt of over N30 trillion.

 

All I can say here is, if stabilizing our foreign exchange market was what led to the naira exchanging for over N1,600 to a dollar today, can we, please, go back to the days of ‘instability’ when naira exchanged for less than N200 to a dollar?

 

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the rate of unemployment in the first quarter of 2024 rose to 5.3 per cent. In the first quarter of 2023, it was 4.1 per cent. It used to be 33.3 per cent before then. The NBS curiously migrated to a new queer methodology that brought the rate down to a single digit. Even at that, the rate this year is higher than what it was last year. This means in effect that the rate of unemployment increased in about one year of Tinubu.

 

Cost of living also shot up significantly in one year of Tinubu’s administration. The price of fuel, for instance, rose sharply from about N185 a litre to about N600 a litre on day one of his assumption of office. Today, the price of that commodity is N1,000 and above in many parts of the country. Price of every other item in the market has gone up rapidly. 

A bag of 50 kilogramme of rice is N100,000 and above today. Yet, before Tinubu took over, it was less than N40,000. A ‘painter’ of beans that cost about N2,000 before he took over now sells for N14,000 and above in many places. The majority of Nigerians have been reduced to paupers who do not know when and where the next meal will come from. Ironically, Tinubu has assured us that he is implementing measures to reduce the cost of living in the country. 

 

The President tried to pacify the youth with what he calls the National Youth Conference. It will run for 30 days and is aimed at addressing the diverse challenges and opportunities confronting young Nigerians who constitute 60 per cent of the country’s population. This confab is cosmetic and will not solve any problem. The government knows what to do but is merely playing to the gallery. The President wants the youth to collaboratively develop solutions to issues such as education, employment, innovation, security and social justice.

 

The questions are: How can our young people develop solutions to issues of security? Are they service chiefs or security experts? How can they develop solutions for employment and social justice? Beyond making suggestions, do they have the power to solve the identified problems? And will the President implement the recommendations and outcomes from the youth conference as he promised? It is very doubtful.

 

These same young people protested between August 1 and 10 this year. Some of them were rounded up and charged with treason. They protested again on October 1, 2024. Their demand is simple: stop hunger and bad governance. A hundred phantom conferences will not meet these demands.

 

I suspect that this conference is to keep some of the youths busy while the misrule continues. It will be like the 2014 National Conference instituted under the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan. Government wasted billions of naira on the confab only to dump its recommendations in the dustbin of history.

Right now, many of our young people are only interested in leaving Nigeria for greener pastures abroad. They feel seriously let down by successive leaders, including the current ones. Tinubu boasted in his October 1 broadcast that the world was benefitting from the massive intellectual capacity and industry of Nigerians in all vocations.

 

He failed to appreciate the fact that Nigeria should have been the one benefitting more from this intellectual capacity and enterprise, if the country were well run. Our people do well abroad because the environment is conducive for them there.

Here, nepotism, favouritism, tribalism and other negative tendencies have combined to pull our people down. Being highly qualified or industrious or having intellectual capacity may not fetch anyone employment or state recognition in Nigeria, if the person is not connected with the powers that be or their cronies.

 

This is why Tinubu’s claim that, since returning from the brink of the civil war, we have learned to embrace our diversity and manage our differences better is not totally correct. The conditions that precipitated the civil war between 1967 and 1970 are still prevalent today. We have only managed to mouth false unity and maintain peace of the graveyard. We are simply deceiving ourselves.   

 

In Tinubu’s absence, the crisis in Rivers State continues to fester. There was a local government election in that state last Saturday. But the dark forces that have vowed to either control or cripple the state will not let that go peacefully. The police, controlled by the federal government, shirked away from their responsibility during the election. We heard of explosions and shootings in some places. Governor Siminalayi Fubara has been shouting like a bird with a broken beak. But what can he do when he is not in control of the security forces?

 

That was partly the same problem that marred the Edo governorship election last month. People trooped out to cast their votes for their preferred candidates. Unfortunately, some powerful forces bungled it in such a way that there are doubts about the victory of the person touted to have won the election.

 

And we have been told that there is light at the end of the tunnel!

Obviously, our democracy is in danger. The state has captured the electoral process and the fear of a one-party state has pervaded the land. The ruling party has threatened to use the Edo template for Anambra and Ondo governorship elections. We can only appeal that they should let the people’s choices to prevail. If they continue to stifle the people’s will, the crisis that engulfed the Western Region in the mid-1960s will be child’s play. 

Our gallant troops deserve commendation for managing to keep the country united despite many threats. Tinubu says his government has eliminated over 300 Boko Haram and bandit commanders in one year. His target is to eliminate all threats of Boko Haram, banditry and kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria.

In reality, insecurity, especially kidnapping for ransom, has continued to blossom. The latest major victims were the 20 Catholic medical students from the University of Jos and University of Maiduguri.

 

They were heading for Enugu to attend a conference when they were waylaid and abducted by terrorists. They spent some days in captivity before they were released. They were lucky because many others did not come back alive. Between May 29, 2023, and May 22, 2024, for instance, over 4,556 fatalities and 7,086 abductions reportedly occurred in Nigeria.

 

As Mr. President cools off in London, we need to remind him to be mindful of the legacies he wants to leave behind for Nigerians. He should get serious with good governance and plan to leave Nigeria better than he met it. How do we even explain that he decided to go on leave when all is not well with his country?

This is outside his numerous foreign travels within just one year in office. He should stay at home and frontally lead the war against many ills of this sick country. He should not leave the kitchen while the oven is hot.

*Igbokwe is a commentator on public issues