No politician likes failure in any form. However, the way you handle your projects or governance determines the stuff you are made of .
It is doubtful if President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would have dared to step into Buhari’s shoes after his eight Years, if he knows the enormity of the mess left behind by the man he helped put in power eight years earlier.
Yes, we can excuse that he won’t shy away from his life- long ambition to rule inspite of the rot.
Since ambition to rule is the driving force, it requires guts and courage to navigate land mines left behind by his predecessor, without stepping on toes.
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Hence, from May 29,2023 when he made his inaugural address as the country’s 16th President, Tinubu stepped on toes, including his own, by the sudden removal of fuel subsidy.
Removal of fuel subsidy, we must all agree has come to define Tinubu’s macro and micro economic policies in the last one year.
Again , the floating of the Naira has added insult to injury as both factors have put his Ministers on their toes, trying to reposition a badly damaged economy.
Tinubu’s audacity in removing subsidy from his first day in office portrayed a man determined to take all the gamble; commit all the wrongs the unusual fate that his daunting steps could muster, which he hopes will in the long run restore the country and put smiles in the thrice beaten citizenry before his term runs out.
While managing Nigeria’s fledgling economy requires the gut of a tested manager, events of the past twelve months have shown that indeed, only the deep can call to the deep and this require the rare courage of a reformer who is ready to bare his chest to all attacks.
Yes, the twin policies have left Nigeria’s poor down, hard and dry but it is debatable whether there is any other sustainable alternative to change the pretentious narration of a beggarly economy. A wobbling economy caused by the previous administration’s lack of courage and focus to redirect the economy to a sustainable level .
The introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, in 1986 by the military administration of Ibrahim Babangida, portended a step on repositioning our weak economy but at the end of the Maradona’s eight years, he succeeded in creating emergency millionaires who fed fat on the weak Forex regime and further weakened the Naira. The local manufacturing sector collapsed under the weight of foreign competition .
Hence, a policy that should have refocused the Domestic economy for real growth ended up creating emergency millionaires , at the expense of a reduced quality of life. It made the poor poorer and the weak weaker.
Tinubu’s audacious moves from day one, with today’s reality, has reshaped his Renewed Hope mantra as hunger has turned the poor to angry citizens questioning the genuineness of somebody who came to save them with his Emilokan mantra.
In spite of the downward reduction of value of the Naira and disappearance of food from the table, the audacious programme of redirecting governance style, appointing competent and tested administrators, putting square pegs in square holes and bringing sanity into both the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and the Oil Industry are strategic steps which could change the narrative of governance if it is sustained for a long time for beneficial ends.
Ironically, explaining the vision in Tinubu’s bold steps in Industry, agriculture, infrastructure has become for the informed the biggest salesmanship task. Selling Tinubu’s audacious approach has become as difficult as selling and rating Buhari’s lack lustre style which inevitably proved disastrous.
It is apparent at the close of his eight years rule that Buhari’s compromised diligence for which he was voted for, left governance in the hands of his kinsmen and palace boys who enriched themselves at the expense of the people .
If between now and December this year, Tinubu is able to bring the Naira to N750 to the dollar as promised by Yemi Cardoso, the CBN governor, and he is also able to rein- in speculators both in the banking and Oil sectors; get Port Harcourt Refinery to work alongside Dangote’s Refinery and others to stop importation of oil and reduce pump price of petroleum products, then he would have improved the quality of living of the people.
A drop in food prices which was triggered by transport costs will surely make a difference in the lives of the country’s citizens, who have, over the years, hoped against Hope…
Besides, he will do well by fast tracking of loans to indigent students in higher institutions; building failed infrastructure like the Ajaokuta Steel Complex; attracting foreign investment in crucial sectors like the Power sector-which is by far the greatest albatross of his predecessors .
If he is able to do this, he would have changed the narrative and justified his Emilokan mantra even among the worst of cynics.
But then, much also depends on sustaining his audacious courage to reduce the MDAs as recommended by the Orosanye report, a report which has been put in the cooler by his predecessors for lack of political will to do the needful and cut the overbloated bureaucracy in the land.
Tinubu has to carry through his reforms in the Police, Military, Civil Service in addition to the dilligent pursuit of restructuring the country’s socio -political economy for the sustainable development of the country.
This approach is the only way to turn around the economy and give Hope to the hopeless.