Series one and two editions of this article literally smashed the Internet into pieces, which ultimately gave compelling reasons for my admirers both within and the Diaspora to demand for the third edition.
In their views, it’s evident that public institutions have continued to be the albatross hindering the growth of this country.
In an attempt to satisfy the appetite of my readers, this edition will be dwelling on the presidency where President Bola Tinubu is on the driver’s seat as the chief pilot of the biggest economy in Africa and the most populous black nation in the world.
Though this seat might be hot, the president had earlier said that Nigerians should not pity him because he asked for the job. So, it’s obligatory on his part to crystalize his renewed hope agenda which should naturally stimulate economic prosperity for Nigerians.
I read through the reactions of a popular social commentator, Reno Omokri, popularly called the table shaker in the social space, about his reactions to President Bola Tinubu’s New Year message to Nigerians, and it caught my fancy.
In his view, Omokri said the speech was not properly spiced with the required flavour and aspirations of Nigerians. Omokri said it didn’t contain the much needed aroma and ingredients that should naturally serve as chemistry between government and the citizens. He insisted that such New Year’s speech of the president should have included
Tinubu advertising the sales of the private jets in the presidential fleet, cut down the humongous salaries and allowances of political appointees, cut down the number of aides, and caravan of pilot cars in the convoy of the president, governors and ministers, cancel foreign travels and trainings that can be conducted here in Nigeria, remove budget on religious tourism through policy directive.
Continuing, Omokri said the President should have told Nigerians his effort to flood the markets with grains in order to address hyperinflation on food items, channel 50% resources in the humanitarian ministry into food production through our primary, secondary and tertiary education, put an end to the dollarization of our economy by workers of iniquities in public institutions, cut to size the political glutton who have taken shelter as contractors and ministers in public institutions and make it mandatory for all public office holders to buy made in Nigeria goods.
You will recall that in the series two editions of this article, I emphasized the significance of the implementation of the evergreen Oronsaye report, which has been gathering dust over the years in the archive.
We can’t be pretending that all is well when the reality says otherwise. This is the time to run an austerity government and time for the president to manifest his political sagacity by scraping overlapping and unproductive public institutions which worker of iniquities have taken over as conduit pipes to show the monkey in them. This decision will ultimately reduce the over bloated cost of governance.
In my view, asking Nigerians, especially the poor pepper sellers and people on the streets, to sacrifice more according to his new year speech, while workers of iniquities in public institutions are brazenly looting the treasury with reckless abandonment and unimaginable public arrogance in the face of abject poverty, would be morally unjustifiable.
It’s really disgusting that Nigerians kick start their official activities daily with prayers either with the Holy Bible or Koran or both to justify their godliness, yet we are all morally bankrupt as a people. We are people of too many contradictions.
I watched a video recently with great admiration where in Sweden, an equivalent of a minister in Nigeria, was waiting to catch a train at the station after office hours without aides or caravan of pilot cars. Lest we forget that Sweden is the seventh largest economy in Europe.
Contrastingly, we go cap in hands to World Bank, IMF, China ,and other multilateral organisations to seek loans, and when we are availed, a large portion of the loans would be frittered on white elephant projects, while the rest ends up in private accounts through corruption.
Malam El-Rufai, the immediate past governor of Kaduna State, said recently that workers of iniquities who have infiltrated and taken shelter in our public institutions will never end their monkey in human behavior attitude in public offices, looting public funds ,unless we are ready to incorporate the China experience into our laws. In his view, people of questionable characters are getting undeserving praises, chieftaincy tittles, and all kinds of celebrations on account of stolen wealth.
In one of my articles before the election, I emphasized why Nigerians electorates should vote for Tinubu. I tagged the article ‘2023 presidency, Tinubu unstoppable’ Why I did that was how he courted a strong relationship with the grassroots long before the election, especially his sterling performance as the former governor of Lagos State and his ability to ensure political stability through consistent peaceful transfer of power that has continued to guarantee political inclusion and economic prosperity in Lagos over the years.
President Bola Tinubu is very much aware of the pains of Nigerians, especially the down trodden. It’s therefore compelling on his part to cushion the effects of subsidy removal and the forex market deregulation that have automatically led to unimaginable spiral inflation in the economy
Time is far spent in this government. There is no time to be making flowery speeches. Nigerians are tired of rhetorics. They need less speech and much action. The much celebrated grains the president promised Nigerians are nowhere to be found, and few cases reported have no impact on the degree of hyperinflation in our economy as a result of compelling government policy.
It’s therefore incumbent on the part of the president to be proactive and address the bruises his policies have caused Nigerians as a matter of urgency.
Nigerians are hungry, and your experience with them during the Christmas holiday in Lagos attested to this. Kindly flood the markets with grains to crash the prices of food in the markets. That a bag of rice is sold for 60k or more in Nigeria can only reveal the level of pain and agony Nigerians are going through in their homes at this critical time.
However, the president deserves our accolades for taking the bull by the horn immediately, he assumed office as the chief driver and image maker of this great country.
He travelled everywhere in the world to shore up our image in the international arena. You know, prior to that time, Nigeria was practically not on the radar when investors were making their choice of preferred investment destination in Africa. This is a position Nigeria had enjoyed for several decades. It’s really not because investors don’t like the country anyway, but corruption by workers of iniquities in our public institutions who are fond of erecting landmines and almost impossible bureaucratic bottleneck to frustrate would-be investors so that they can always part with their money before they can be allowed to invest in Nigeria
It’s not only the immigration officers who are culpable here. It’s usually a cobwebs of criminality across our public institutions. Even as we speak, Nigeria is faced with a forex crisis, and we need multiple investments in our country to solve our unemployment problem and improve our GDP. I have repeatedly said that some strategic public institutions can’t be left in the hands of jokers. It’s only people of impeccable characters with track records in their endeavors that should be called on board when necessary. What the president is doing at the moment with the CBN is heartwarming and should also be extended to other institutions. NNPCL should undergo public scrutiny. Everything about this corporation lacks transparency as attested to recently by the World Bank.
In his speech recently and even during his campaigns, Tinubu promised Nigerians a credit economy as obtainable in other parts of the world. Nigerians applauded this policy, which, if truly implemented, will trigger consumers’ capacity and industrial output. It will also address corruption.
There is, therefore, no better time than now for this laudable policy to take off. It’s heartwarming that, evidently, we are improving on our infrastructure nationwide, especially in the South West. I said in one of the previous articles that great nations around the world use infrastructure to power their economies, so it’s not out of place if we are in this race, but there is something we are missing especially in the South West region. In this part of the country, our greatest hallmark is our educational pedigree, which has continued to position us as sophisticated people in all human endeavour.
Regrettably, public primary and secondary education in this region is now in pitiable situations. In some instances, dilapidated infrastructure, no chair, no table, no teaching materials, no teachers because those in authority has abandoned public education so that the children of nobody would not be able to access education in the future.
We can’t be building infrastructure without correspondingly building the next generation that will make use of the infrastructure wisely. We are appealing to people in authority to please take this project as very important in their respective areas.
This article may not achieve its usual mileage if I fail to draw the attention of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Authority( NERA) to the abnormality by service providers.
I am yet to know the rationale why electricity consumers should be the one to pay for meter with which service provider determines the volume of electricity consumed by respective consumers. If you are asking consumers to pay for meters, it is like doctors in the hospitals asking their patients to come with their stethoscope before they can be examined.
The claim of meter scarcity is also a scam designed to continue to fleece consumers of their hard earned money. It’s the same game of racketeering in the passport office way back. It’s time for the regulatory authority to sit up and do the needful, otherwise, they have Nigerians to contend with soonest.
.Otunba Sola Olatunji, Chairman, Ikale Heritage Development Association, IHDA, writes from Lagos.
