Tinubu’s ‘Do As I Say’ Reforms!

 By Ugoji Egubjo

Tinubu said he came to initiate reforms. And the people waited to emulate him. Because talk is cheap. After taking away subsidies without cushions, he went for a bloated cabinet. A flabby cabinet of the  sons of profligacy to prosecute austerity measures.

*Tinubu
With his deliberate choice of some indicted persons as ministers, he signaled to the EFCC that he wasn’t interested in anti-corruption. Once he awarded his first major contract, the multi-trillion naira  Lagos-Calabar road, to his friend, everyone got the message. The reforms would not include due process. The reforms are not ‘Do As I do’.

Tinubu’s reforms have many congenital abnormalities. But the main problem  isn’t the abject failure to outline a clear vision with some magnetic appeal. And the reliance on piecemeal ‘cut and join’ measures. The main problem is that Tinubu is so self indulgent that he is unwilling to subject himself to the pains of reforms. Tinubu doesn’t want to reform by personal examples. 

Tinubu doesn’t want to be bound by the strictures. In this regard, Tinubu is like a modern-day prosperity Pentecostal pastor. He preaches heaven, but doesn’t like the biblical narrow way. He declares a fast and throws parties in a hotel, arming the flesh to battle the spirit.  He was born in a manger, but his toys are private jets and Rolls-Royce cars, courtesy of tithes and offerings of the poor. In the good old days,  he had preached every morning, ringing bells, talking about hellfire, urging repentance and good neighbourliness, seeking societal rebirth. But now, rigour is for the congregation alone; his life is soft and graceful. His life is a repudiation of the reformation he mouths. But he is beyond reproach. He is now a deity. 

But if Tinubu knew he lacked the stamina  to partake in the self-denial he has ordered for the masses, he should have done a better homework. He came small-minded to reform a divided country, he inherited after a fractious election. By brazenly embracing the most mind-bending tribalism ever seen in the country and bullishly concentrating power in his tribe with a disdain for decency and inclusion, he made his task Herculean. 

Perhaps Tinubu’s reforms need no national trust and cohesion. The major reforms are now being fashioned by one tribe for others to swallow without a grimace. The real reason the tax bill hit a brick wall is this arrogant ethnocentricism. The tax reforms man is Yoruba. The Tax collection man is Yoruba. The finance minister is Yoruba. The CBN Governor is Yoruba. The EFCC chairman who might be used to combat tax evasion is Yoruba.

Yet there are other issues. Tinubu is not reforming profligacy and corruption. Monkeys are being reformed for more sweat and blood; the Baboons are at the table, blissful, gorging themselves to death. To Tinubu’s credit, he wants to rake in more money for the government. But to what end? Subsidies had been abused for a long while. But after removing the subsidies, the people were supposed to see infrastructure. They have seen nothing. Crude oil theft is ongoing. The proceeds of the extractive industry haven’t been judiciously utilised. 

Now, Tinubu is going for taxes. He wouldn’t tax the okada rider. But that’s no generosity. The okada rider already pays too much tax to the touts and police, to the bad roads and absent public utilities.  So, that exemption was to avoid an uprising. Tinubu is conveniently headed for the middle class, which his shoddy currency devaluation has already pauperised. To squeeze out from them what his poorly implemented policies have left of their quality of life. But when Tinubu gets more taxes, what will happen? 

The governors will live more lavishly in Abuja, far away from the chaos and misery in the states. The country will witness more naira chasing after dollars as governors convert the swelling FAAC to dollars. Tinubu is not a suitable example of frugality. Many governors now call him a globetrotter. The country has no moral compass. With more money in the coffers and an anti-corruption effort mindful of Tinubu’s political ambitions, governors and minsters will award superfluous contracts to their friends at inflated costs without any compunction.  They will buy bigger cars and drink more exotic wines. They will distribute a few bags of rice to the poor. 

Sincere reforms would have identified the problems first. Lack of national unity with tensions complicating insecurity.  A sick political culture mediated by money and brigandage ensuring a crooked leadership recruitment process. A culture of theft and profligacy in government and ever growing impunity. Elections that lack integrity, flood the courts with petitions, ceding ultimate powers to a corrupt judiciary to choose political leaders. 

Weak revenue steams because of chronically stagnant productive capacity. Poor electric power generation and distribution capacity impairing industrialization and job growth. Concentration of power at the centre and continuing deviation from the practice of true federalism undermining accountability. Badly remunerated and trained police and an overstretched military worsening crime and insecurity. Widespread insecurity, draining resources for healthcare and education and hampering agricultural output. 

If you want to see Tinubu’s commitment to the reforms, look away from the Lagos Calabar Road shenanigan. He didn’t struggle with that. Look at his reform pronouncements. He announces a slight reduction in the size of his entourage, but soon, he increased the frequency of his travels. He removed five ministers and appointed seven. He announced Oransaye reforms to merge departments and boost efficiency, then he started duplicating jobs.

 The elephants in the room are left. The pathetic window dressings and the facades are pulled down even before they are fully erected.  The easier recourse is to perpetually harry the people for more sacrifices.  Tinubu isn’t driving any police reforms that can bring attitudinal changes. Tinubu isn’t bothered about the image of the judiciary he inherited. Tinubu hasn’t initiated any electoral reforms. Tinubu hasn’t tinkered with the security architecture. Tinubu has no political initiatives to unite the country and lower tensions. 

Before Tinubu came, federal appointments were sold in the open. Young people all knew the prices. Slots in some juicy agencies and departments were selling for as much as five million for entry-level jobs. That was when the naira had some value.  Some honourable and distinguished lawmakers who got allocations of jobs hawked them. Before Tinubu came, rogues in government sold political appointments. 

People paid to head certain  agencies and ministries. After Tinubu won his election, has the criminal trade in appointments and promotions stopped? Some dubious people are still in the game. Promotions and postings in federal institutions are still being sold.  Tinubu inherited a mess and has allowed the mess to fester. The pig he is putting lipstick on in the name of reforms needs a thorough bath. 

Tinubu is focused on fattening the purse. But that’s the easy part. Any brute can do that by squeezing the people, collecting more money from them, and seeking to soothe their anguish with rice and cash handouts. There has been no attempt to stitch the tattered moral fabric. Those ministers who are living examples of ill-gotten wealth clothed with immunity, bruising the people’s sensibilities and bragging about their 2027  electoral invincibility to hungry people, are they also doing reforms? Many know that if the political culture remains unchanged the country will be no better than an old woman who has gone to a distant stream to fetch with a leaky bucket. 

But let us believe Tinubu is doing reforms.  Let’s do as he as he says and not as he does and hope for the better. Because it appears we are almost on our own. 

*Dr. Egbujo is a commentator on public issues