Re: Tinubu a symbol of collective of suffering

After the above piece on the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I got responses from notable Nigerians, either expressing similar views as mine or disagreeing with me. The government itself went to town to defend its policies and programmes, without offering any meaningful roadmap out of the present economic quagmire that it has plunged the nation into.

Good enough that what seemed to be an apology was rendered by the Minister of Information, being a clear departure from the regular propaganda of that ministry in times past. It is good to move away from the seeming deceptions of the past one year, wherein the government has lived in self delusion that it was pursuing the interests of the people of Nigeria. Let me share with you some of the laudable contributions of notable Nigerians on the issue.
John Walker Adetunji-Adeoye:
Sir, I respect your opinion a lot, brilliant I must say. However, permit me to object to the “You will not be able to convince….”. Sir, why do you want to convince me that it is the duty of a governor or any leader to bring a utopian society into this world? Tinubu, as governor, did a lot of things despite being handicapped by socio political forces during his time. As you have said, and like he said himself, nobody should pity him, and I agreed. He decided to be Nigeria’s president at a time I believe no sane person should carry such on their shoulders.

My opinion is that Nigeria has tons of social factors pegging us into poverty and the moment we continue to shy away from such factors, we will never attain reasonable goals and objectives. Sir, we have no business being 100 million as a population, not to talk of being 215 million as a population.

There are people who lack 1/10 of your personal financial weight but have 10 more children than you do, and they are in their millions. These people are a cancer to national development. Sir, it is NOT Buhari, Tinubu, Adetunji-Adeoye or your responsibility to handle the individual lives of Nigerians. Again, we will talk about bad leadership when we start removing social factors of poverty in Nigeria. Otherwise, our collective barometer in judging political pressure that a leader can handle is faulty.

Would Peter Obi or Atiku have done better? Of course it’s easy for them and their supporters to answer an affirmative YES. Last I checked, none of the two turned their respective jurisdictions into a land of milk and honey when they had the opportunity.
 
I want to praise Tinubu, I want to criticise him as well…but again, what is the standard measurement of doing so besides the eternal blackmail of “people are suffering” or “economy is bad”, both which have become a global anthem anyway? Selah!
Creator’s Ottobot Orcale 
Dear Mr Adetunji-Adeoye, I quote you – ‘He decided to be Nigeria’s President at a time I believe no sane person should’…  and I want to ask, was he the only one that contested for the office? And another thing – you may not feel the impact of today’s hardship because you’re well-to-do and equipped. I’ve seen families of four or less finding it very hard to meet-up to their basic needs after hustling so hard each day (because they weren’t equiped, or maybe due to family background or other circumstances). Be grateful to God for the grace upon you. Be blessed.
John Walker Adetunji-Adeoye
Creator’s Ottobot Orcale Well, since you decided to quote me partly, may I also suggest you should have quoted me wholly especially including the part I extended it to every other candidate as well. I told everyone during the electoral period that Nigeria’s problems are mountainous and NONE of the candidates are capable of fixing the problems, especially when the electorate themselves have unachievable expectations from the candidates. Read what I wrote again and ask yourself the truth. Which candidate is coming to cater for the needs of the man with 6+ children? And yes, one child is one too many for some even in the UK and U.S., more less Nigeria.

I am grateful to God for the grace upon me and I appreciate your civil response, even as we slightly disagree. Again, my point is that everyone is a solution provider to Nigeria’s problems until you put them in power. Tinubu himself, as we remembered, tackled Jonathan, Obasanjo and others when he wasn’t President, today he is President and the rest is history.
Ebokaiwe Godwin
God bless you sir for your observation and write up. More power to your elbow. I know our dear nation is sitting on a keg of gunpowder. My fear is that most people that observe and criticise this unfair and corrupt government have been given appointments and have shut up. May God continue to keep you upright and grant you all it takes to soar higher in your endeavors. Amen.”

The verdict is out there on the streets that people are suffering, notwithstanding the loud noise about ‘Renewed Hope’. People are unable to meet their basic obligations to pay school fees, foot their medical bills or discharge their financial obligations like paying for their house rents. The price of food is on the rooftop! I do not think that Nigerians have ever had it so bad in history.

The main issue is the hypocrisy of governance, whereby leaders ask the followers to tighten their belts whilst living in scandalous opulence. The allegations of corruption trailing the Tinubu administration is simply mind-boggling. There is no point sparing the ruling party other than to tell it that it is a failed organisation, judging it from all parameters possible, for the past nine painful years.

I cannot point to any aspect of the lives of our people where tangible improvement has been recorded since May 2023. Insecurity is as bad as it can be, inflation is at its highest ever, unemployment is climbing as more factories are closing down, electricity supply is the poorest that we have had, with the national grid collapsing and backfiring. Some of the main reasons for the suffering that the people go through daily are fuel subsidy removal, the floating of the currency and the absence of stable electricity supply.

In addition to the prohibitive cost of fuel for vehicles to move around, you also need diesel and fuel to power the generators. This is draining resources and pushing people to the limits. Stable electricity supply is key to economic development, at least for small-scale businesses and major factories. The cost of maintaining the generators is consuming the little profit that comes from businesses.

What then could be the solution to the myriad of problems that Nigerians are being confronted with? Let the refineries work. It is that simple. The availability of fuel and diesel is critical to the prosperity of the economy of this nation. Whatever the government needs to do to get the refineries to work should be a matter of priority. Then of course there is an urgent need to restructure the organisations responsible for regulating our major source of revenue, that is the NNPC Limited.

The reforms going on in the Central Bank of Nigeria should be extended to NNPC Limited. The President is the substantive Minister of Petroleum so the buck stops at his table, to take the bull by the horn and unbundle that critical organ of our economic survival. Then following that is electricity.

Let there be light. Once Nigeria can guarantee stable power supply for its citizens, for the companies, for all businesses, schools and all other entities, then we are on our way to real economic prosperity. If the President is not able to achieve this critical goal, then he could as well say goodbye to any economic reform and resign. This is an area the present administration has scored zero performance, given that the situation that it met on ground has degenerated.

These factors, if properly addressed, will boost the economy and also affect the value of the Naira, from its current free fall. This is central to the survival of Nigeria itself as a nation because every other thing has become as unstable as the currency, leading to widespread uncertainties on investment, dwindling production capacity and general growth decline across the board.

It cannot be the desire of the President to rule over people who are suffering, people who are hungry and battered on all sides by the economic policies of their leader. And if that is so, then there can be no discussion around the trumpeted hope renewal in the midst of abject poverty amongst the populace and wanton opulence of scandalous proportions for the leaders. Enough said.
Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).