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!
*TinubuNigerians 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
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