MR PRESIDENT, let me join the array of your supporters who toiled in the sun and rain to push your renewed hope philosophy throughout the length and breadth of this country during your campaigns which eventually resulted in sweet victory at thbe poll. I also congratulate you once again on the Supreme Court landmark judgment.
No doubt, this is about the sweetest moment in our political history and, most importantly a milestone in our political evolution as a nation.
While we are still savouring the joy of victory, we shouldn’t allow the joy of the moment to prevent us from knowing that this is the best time for Mr. President to settle down with your beautiful team for good governance.
The period of distractions is over, so this is the period to put an end to the free fall of our national currency before we begin to carry a basket full of naira to buy a loaf of bread like in Zimbabwe
This is the time to put an end to the round tripping of forex in our economy by identifying those who are involved in this criminal act, no matter highly placed in the society and make them to account for their misdeeds to serve as deterrent to others who may want to follow the same route.
This is the time to put an end to the influx of inferior goods into our country through the borders by ensuring that we apply the right punishment to government officials who are their accomplices.
This is the time to stop awarding local contracts to foreigners when there are many Nigerians who can do the job better. No country in the world will adopt this approach because citizens first in the distribution of opportunities available in the country. You can’t leave your citizens hungry and feed foreigners, and yet demand for loyalty and patriotism from them.
It’s the time to stop this high interest rates in our banking system because, no matter how we pretend, our banks are not lending to promote real economic development and this action is hurting our national economy as bad loans are everywhere in our banking institutions and if care is not taking, another banking failures may be in the offing.
This is the time to stop oil thieves who are wreaking havoc and sabotaging our national economy. The idea of blame game between the host communities and naval and the police shouldn’t be the problems now. Let there be synergy and effective collaboration so that we can put an end to this economic sabotage in order to boost our revenue base.
This is the best time to put an end to those who sabotage our local industries through continuous importation of inferior goods into the country through the connivance and accomplices of some government officials. Let’s apprehend those who are found culpable and apply the right punishment. Any infraction committed by an individual without appropriate punishment will not help the society.
This is the best time to really address our Refineries issues. We can’t import petrol for local consumption in the face of acute shortage of foreign exchange when we can refine the product back home. In any event, Nigerians can’t continue to bear the brunt of inefficiency of NNPCL and institutions of government. The poor are getting poorer, and the few charitable people in our midst are the ones holding forth as the government is helpless. Let’s put an end to this unproductive economic policy where we tend to promote foreign economies on account of importation of petrol from foreign countries when we have the raw materials back home and yet our youths are crying for employment.
This is the time to embark on a massive national campaign about our ethics and values It’s the time to re-orientate ourselves as a people and stop the game of blackmail. .
This is the right time to show the charisma and visionary leadership in you, Mr. President. It’s the time to look into the problems of our universities, which, in my views, are bugged down by over regulations and bureaucracy.
It’s the time to look at the direction of the poor who have been your friends for ages and make real intervention in their social wellbeing. The palliatives, though temporary, in some cases, did not get to some of your traditional friends, the poor. They have been blocked by some mercenaries whose only mandate is to show ego by ,preventing others from reaching their goals when they were not on the same routes.
It’s the time to fix our rails and roads too.
It’s the time to make our institutions function. It’s the time to make the Standard Organisations of Nigeria (SON) do its job and make the CONSUMER PROTECTION COUNCIL (CPC) alive to its responsibility.
This is the best time for our industries to observe quality control measures according to institutional standards.
This is not the period when filling station attendants should under-dispense petrol to innocent Nigerians who are already going through excruciating period in their lives.
This is the time to reward the various support groups who spent their times, and hard earned resources to promote your candidature and spread the renewed hope ideology to the nook and cranny of the society, in the rain and under the heavy sun for your victory.
They are your political foot soldiers and will always be ready to work on your behalf next time. We know the philosophy of ‘Monkey dey work,baboon dey chop’ is not in your dictionary, so this is the time to reward your foot soldiers..
This is not the time when recruitment into the civil service or agencies should be done privately, thereby denying the children of the poor opportunity to be in the civil service.
This is not the time when public assets should be sold to few individuals or families of the people in government without going through due process by advertising such assets to the public so that there could be competitive bidding.
This is not the right time for us to replace the children of old politicians in appointments and political opportunities without looking at the direction of the children of nobody who are also qualified to occupy the same positions.
This is not the right time when public officials should dollarise the economy, yet there is scarcity of dollars for importers.
This is not the right time for our public primary and secondary schools to be abandoned without the recruitment of teachers and renewal of basic infrastructure, and yet ,private primary, secondary, and universities are flourishing daily .
The above problem is heightening the fear in the public domain that there is a deliberate attempt to kill all public schools so that the children of the poor will not have the opportunity to education.
Mr. President, this is the time to put an end to medical tourism in our country by making a deliberate attempt to improve our health care system and also provide modern equipment in our health care institutions so that there will not be the need to travel to India or Europe or South Africato treat headaches, malaria and broken bones.
This is the right time to focus on entrepreneurship in order to reflate our national economy and revert to good old days when industrial parks were scattered with industries in ikeja, Apapa, Ilupeju, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Aba, Benin, Kaduna, Kano and others.
This is not the time to keep on replacing our industrial sites with mega churches and mosques, praying for miracles rather than encourage productivity.
This is the time to change our consumption pattern by focusing on what we can produce and consume less of imported goods. This should be demonstrated by Mr. President and his team first, to enable the general public imbibe this change.
This is also not the time for members of the National Assembly to show opulence in an economy where Nigerian banks can’t honour their letter of credits in international trade..
This is not the right time the fleet of cars in the entourage of top government officials should be a priority. This is the time to reduce the fleet of cars and this should start with Mr. President in order to reduce waste.
This is not the time for government officials and Labour unions to travel abroad for frivolous training thereby draining the scarce foreign exchange we have in our economy, when the same training can be conducted here in Nigeria.
This is the time for President Bola Tinubu to focus on the activities of civil servants who are usually doing so much to sabotage the best of public policy by successive administration. Mr. President, this is the time for accountability. It’s the time to cut down the rooftop spending. It’s time to merge agencies that render overlapping services.
It doesn’t make any economic sense for us to be running a container economy and borrowing to support foreign consumptions.
It’s time for us to think out of the box and spend more time planning our economy. Let’s work hard and boost productivity. Let us make our institutions do their job effectively and consume 50% of what we produce locally and change our taste for foreign goods consumptions.
.Otunba Sola Olatunji, Chairman , Ikale Heritage Development Association, IHDA, writes from Lagos
