Asiwaju Bola Tinubu spent some time in May in France to prepare for his inauguration as Nigeria’s new president after he won the February 25 2023 election. While holed up there, his aides said the president-elect, after taking office, would “hit the ground running”. (Well, I’ve never seen Tinubu run a race or do roadwalk. But, yes, I had watched him dance “buga”.) Speaking metaphorically, the new president has not only hit the ground bam, but also kicked up a whirlwind that is blowing “everywhere and anywhere”. It is sweeping everything, heading, as whirlwinds do, only God knows where.
What are these whirlwinds? Petrol subsidy removal bravado. Off the cuff while delivering his inaugural address May 29th, Tinubu said his new government had done away with fuel subsidy because it was evil. But the prepared script acknowledged subsidy removal was the decision of the previous government: “We commend the decision of the outgoing administration in phasing out the petrol subsidy regime which has increasingly favoured the rich more than the poor. Subsidy can no longer justify its ever-increasing costs in the wake of drying resources. We shall instead re-channel the funds into better investment in public infrastructure, education, health care and jobs that will materially improve the lives of millions.”
Tinubu’s decision to abandon the script to speak extempore on an emotive matter like subsidy was bravado misapplied. A swashbuckling that misfired. And while we are at it, I don’t think that the swirling band of news reporters helped the president by presenting the thing as his idea. And his media people failed to see or simply ignored the goof! It took Festus Keyamo, an outsider, to point it out and issue a clarification on his Twitter handle. But then the damage was done. The knives were already out.
The Nigeria Labour Congress, until now, hit by a paralysis of self doubt, threatened a national strike by public service workers if the new government stopped the subsidy regime. Tinubu panicked. Because a union that, first wasn’t sure of its position, tamely said it was calling a strike? Where was his initial machismo? It had collapsed. A nationwide strike in the early days of his yet unformed administration? Never! Talks were hastily called, followed by pledges of palliatives (that word!) to be paid for with a World Bank loan (loan again?) and a new national minimum wage. Shouldn’t these “cushions” have have been presented to labour before saying subsidy was gone forever? Why start a fight you’re not prepared for? As the English say, don’t start what you can’t finish. This is the legs hitting the ground running without the head thinking properly or not at all.
Two: the gale of sackings and replacements. His first day in office, the president called a meeting with the military service chiefs he inherited from Buhari where he ordered them to stop oil theft in the Niger delta. Few days later, he kicked them out. Perhaps he doubted their loyalty? Changing old and tired hands is normal, but why fool them with a task, then dump them? Next is the case of Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor, first appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan, retained by Buhari for eight years and now booted out by the new helmsman in Aso Rock.
The formal charges against Emefiele include one that he was using treasury funds to finance terrorism. Really? If true, he only could have been doing so on behalf of the man who kept him as treasury chief for 8 long years! But can a Tinubu say so? Doubt it. Many say that Emefiele had to go because it was he who goaded Buhari into agreeing to a currency note swap in the heat of electioneering. Tinubu, it was reported, complained that the policy was aimed at hurting his campaign. Now, as president, he has fired Emefiele, replaced him with his tribesman and revised the policy. Exact your pound of flesh when you’re in a position to, aahn! Only the acrid stink of vengefulness is too pungent to ignore here.
The Tinubu whirlwind has taken out also the head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Ahaaaaaan! That anti-fraud house that Obasanjo built! Looks like no clean hand that enters that house ever leaves the way it came! Awi roo, my sister would say.
So, as it is being said, Tinubu is already doing so much for us. All we have to say is “Thank you, Lord.” Bring out the plumb line shall we!
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