By Casmir Igbokwe
Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, unveiled what appears to be one of the greatest achievements of President Bola Tinubu recently. Last week, the governor was quoted to have threatened his appointees to join him in his planned defection to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) or resign.
Governor Eno, who won his election on the
platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is the latest big fish which
the all-conquering APC’s dragnet has caught. Earlier in April, the Governor of
Delta State, Mr. Sheriff Oborevwori, migrated to the ruling party with the
entire leadership and stakeholders of the PDP in the state. More people had
earlier defected. A triumphant Tinubu gleefully said last week that he expected
more people to join the APC. Great achievement!
Ordinarily, this gale of defections should be an indication that something good is happening within the ruling party. Or that the government of the day has become a honeypot of performance, thus attracting a large number of honeybees.
Far from it! In two years of Tinubu’s reign as
President, Nigerians have seen hell. He tagged his agenda, ‘Renewed Hope’. But
from day one, he made no pretence about his plans to defer the hope of millions
of Nigerians.
“Subsidy is gone,” was his first major
pronouncement on his inauguration day. It was callously said without serious
plans on how to cushion the effects it was bound to have on the masses. From
that May 29, 2023, the majority of Nigerians have not known peace. The price of
fuel has hovered between N900 a litre and over N1,000 a litre. Before Tinubu
came on board, it was about N185 a litre.
This was quickly followed by the floating of
the exchange rate. This weakened many private and corporate bodies. Electricity
tariff was raised for Band A customers from N68 per kilowatt-hour to N209.5kWh.
This has not guaranteed constant electricity.
Prices of other commodities have been on an
upswing. Food items like rice, beans, and yam are unaffordable to many
families. Millions of Nigerians have turned beggars overnight. Nigeria has
continued to emerge tops in the league of hunger and poverty-stricken
countries.
In 2023, the country appeared in the list of
22 countries classified as hunger hot spots in the world. In the same 2023, the
World Bank Food Security Update Report indicated that the number of Nigerians
who faced acute food shortage increased by 28 per cent. Between June and August
this year, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations projects
that over 31.1 million Nigerians face the risk of acute food insecurity.
Globally, Nigeria is said to have come second in terms of acute food
insecurity. Some citizens have died in stampedes to collect food palliatives.
To worsen the situation, big companies started
shutting down operations in the country. Some of them include multinationals
like GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Procter and Gamble, and Sanofi-Aventis. The exit of
these multinationals increased the rate of unemployment. Many families could
not afford the cost of basic health care and food. This has increased the death
rate as well.
The worst deaths are the ones caused by
terrorists and bandits. The government of the day boasts of dealing a deadly
blow on insurgency. But reports and statistics indicate otherwise. In Borno
State, Governor Babagana Zulum has been crying like a bird with a broken beak.
He has told whoever cared to listen that Boko Haram terrorists now attack and
kidnap people in many communities almost on a daily basis. And they now use
more sophisticated weapons, including drones and improvised explosive devices.
In Plateau and Benue States, some other
terrorists suspected to be Fulani herdsmen wreaked havoc last April. They
invaded some communities in the two North-Central states and killed hundreds of
innocent citizens. Thousands of others were displaced.
In the other parts of the country, kidnapping
still holds sway. Travelling on the road has become a nightmare to citizens
because of insecurity. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, 614,937
people were killed in Nigeria between May 2023 and April 2024. SBM Intelligence
reported that at least 2,000 Nigerians were killed in violent incidents between
January and March 2025.
If you escape being kidnapped on the road, you
may not escape it in your house, especially if you are a government critic or
journalist. We claim to have democracy and freedom of speech. But in 2024
alone, a good number of journalists were abducted and detained for what
government agents considered offensive publications.
Not even minors are spared. In August 2024,
many Nigerians trooped out to protest hunger and bad governance in some parts
of the country. Security agents did not just suppress the protests, they killed
some of the protesters and arrested many others, including underage people who
they charged with treason. Following the outcry that trailed this action, these
young people were released after some months in detention.
Amid these shenanigans, the people in power
behave as if nothing is amiss. They buy exotic vehicles for themselves, build
mansions to satiate their luxurious taste and purchase new presidential jet to
ease their frequent travels to Europe and some other exquisite destinations in
the world. The jet is worth over $100 million while the new residence for the
vice-president cost N21 billion. The sports utility vehicles members of the
National Assembly took home soon after their inauguration cost the tax payers
over N57.6 billion.
The other day, Nigerians were told that the
Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike; Minister of Works, Dave Umahi;
and other ministers would unveil the success stories of this administration at
an international press conference in London on June 27, 2025. Most likely, the
ambitious but disconnected Lagos-Calabar coastal highway will come tops in the
achievement list. It will be good if they tell Nigerians if due process was
followed in the award of that contract.
Last April, Tinubu travelled to France to
appraise his administration’s mid-term performance and assess key milestones.
We were told that he also used the retreat to review the progress of his
ongoing reforms and engage in strategic planning ahead of his administration’s
second anniversary. Pray, is there no good venue in Nigeria where these people
can stay and give account of their stewardship? Why London? Why France?
Corruption is the name of the game. Travelling
out gives some of them the opportunity to corner some estacodes and then relax
their muscles in a sane and conducive environment. Little wonder, Nigeria’s
ranking in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index has not
improved despite the noise about fighting corruption. In the 2024 index, the
country ranked 140 out of 180 countries, making it the 36th most corrupt
country in the world.
So far, efforts to fight the monster have been
selective. Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele,
fell out of favour with the authorities in Abuja. Recently, the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) handed over his seized 753 duplexes in Abuja
to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. He reportedly acquired the
estate with illicit funds obtained through kickbacks from foreign exchange
allocations and contracts awarded during his tenure as the CBN governor. The
estate will be auctioned soon.
The immediate past governor of Delta State and
running mate to Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 presidential election, Ifeanyi
Okowa, has a near-similar charge hanging on his neck. The EFCC alleged that
Okowa defrauded his state to the tune of N1.3trillion while in office as
governor. He also allegedly used N40billion of his state to acquire properties
in Abuja and Asaba. The anti-graft agency arrested him in November 2024, but
later released him on bail.
Pronto, Okowa, who had described the
allegations as politically motivated, joined his successor in migrating to the
APC. He claimed the action was in the best interest and common good of the good
people of Delta State. Story!
Some ministers in Tinubu’s cabinet are
stupendously rich. These people are not known to own any big company or business
except politics. How they made their money needs to be interrogated by the Code
of Conduct Bureau.
We cannot claim to be fighting corruption
until public officers, starting from the President, publicly declare their
assets in and out of office as provided for in Part I of the Fifth Schedule of
the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Those who fail to do this should be
severely punished according to the law.
It is unfortunate that Nigerians have found
themselves in a state of complete state capture. Almost every institution of
state has been captured. The judiciary is a shadow of itself. The legislature
is a rubber stamp of the executive. Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, said
the other day that they were not elected to oppose the executive. But were they
elected to be lapdogs? Opposition parties are in disarray and there is no hope
of redemption from any quarter.
Prominent economist and political activist,
Professor Pat Utomi, attempted to come to the rescue recently. He formed what
he called Coalition Shadow Government. The idea is to use the platform, made up
of different opposition party members, to highlight the failures of this
government and offer ideas for better governance. Always afraid of
its shadows and virile opposition, the Department of State Services (DSS) sued
Utomi.
In a country where democracy works, this
government will not come back to power in 2027. The masses are fed up. But our
elections do not count. People only come out to waste their time in the name of
election. The powers that be know there may be a serious boycott of the next
election if certain reforms are not undertaken. That is why the National
Assembly is keen to pass mandatory voting bill. They want to make a law that
all eligible Nigerians must come out to vote or be jailed for six months.
Incidentally, Nigerians are always eager to
exercise their franchise. They demonstrated that in the 2023 general election
by trooping out en masse to vote. About 93.4 million people registered to vote
nationwide. Unfortunately, many of them were technically disenfranchised. The
election was so massively rigged in many parts of the country that only about
24.9 million people (about 27 per cent of eligible voters) eventually voted.
Out of this number, fewer than nine million people voted for Tinubu to rule
over 220 million Nigerians. This was adjudged the worst turnout in the history
of presidential elections in Nigeria.
Nigeria has been so unfortunate with poor
leadership. Transparent and accountable leaders are not allowed to come close to
the corridors of power. We thought 2023 would be the defining year for real
change. But our hopes have been deferred. Let’s continue to keep that hope
alive. Nothing is permanent in life.
*Igbokwe is a commentator on public issues
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