For Those Misleading Mr. President

Hope! Renewed Hope! Perhaps, the writer who said hope is better served as breakfast and not dinner did not have President Bola Tinubu in mind, writes The Vanguard.

Three years after, spanning 1095 days, the President’s minders are still telling Nigerians that their hope will be renewed. Whereas Tinubu himself acknowledges the suffering of Nigerians – or so he claims from time to time – some of his minders speak to a different thesis about the situation of Nigerians.

Some even claim that Nigeria of today is the best since independence, while engaging in self-flagellation and incestuous masturbatory relief that Tinubu is the best President Nigeria has ever had and will ever have. That is where some of President Tinubu’s problems start. If a leader is not sat down by his minders and associates, and made to understand the experiential realities of his citizens, he will carry on as if all is well.

For some Nigerians, whenever they see President Tinubu, the visage that confronts them is one of an unsympathetic leader. Partisans will disagree but that is the reality.
The concomitant effect is that whereas Tinubu is trying to do his best, trying to set right what had taken decades to destroy, engaging dynamic strategies to carry out his reforms, there is a disconnect between efforts and the deliverables.

But who will tell the President? Who will tell the President that Nigerians are, indeed, suffering under the weight of his reforms?
Who will tell the President that the lifestyle of some of his appointees and friends do not reflect the suffering Nigerians are going through?

Who will tell the President that awarding multi-trillion naira legacy contracts – in their tens of trillions – to a single contractor is suggestive of self-sabotage and antithetical to inclusivity?
Who will tell the President that the palliatives his administration claims to be providing to Nigerians is largely enabled by partisan considerations?
Who will tell the president that the cries of hunger and poverty in the land has an increased decibel because what should have gone round is concentrated in the hands of a few?
Who will tell the President that of all that he has done, he is doing, and he still intends to do, he is yet to convince some Nigerians that he means well?
Who will tell the President that the lifestyle of his son, Seyi, does not reflect the sacrifices Mr. President is demanding from fellow countrymen?
Who will tell the President that he has the single, most distinguished influence to make Nigeria a better country, but there are fears that his focus is majorly on politics of survival and domination?
Indeed, who will tell the President to deploy his eminently unmatched grip on the legislative and judicial arms of government for the enthronement of a paradigm that works for all and not just for his All Progressives Congress, APC, leaders and members, as well as a coterie of associates?
But, who will tell the President that a good legacy hinged on the virtues of Ubuntu {in ancient African philosophical worldview rooted in the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. According to Wikipedia, it is best summarized by the phrase “I am because we are” (or in isiZulu, “umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu,” meaning” a person is a person through other persons”). It emphasizes that an individual’s humanity, well-being, and identity are inextricably linked to the community and environment around them)} is worth much more than all the wealth and braggadocio of the moment?
Who will tell the President?
Who will tell the President that history beckons, and that he still has the time to record his name as the best President Nigeria ever had, ever has or may ever have, if only he can forego some personal political gains made possible by a cocktail of absurd conduct of some of his associates, and present himself as a leader truly committed to and interested in the overall sanitisation of Nigeria’s political sphere. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua barely ruled Nigeria for two years before his health challenges poured cold water on his vision. He is still remembered for his humility and good gestures which suggested that he wanted a better political space for all.
Who will tell the President that, after three years in the saddle, the democratic space has shrunk for the opposition to thrive?

Who will tell the President that his command-structure political practice is not sustainable in a polity of constantly clashing socio-political, economic and religious interests?
Who will tell the President? Again, who will remind the President of his promise to provide power and stop estimated billing?
There is a common saying that ‘nothing lasts forever’.
From all indications, barring any last-minute reassessment of the basis of their engagement, and opposition figures coalesce behind a candidate to stop Tinubu, the incumbent is set to retain his seat and serve his second term. In any case, what content are those seeking to unseat Tinubu within the praxis of Nigeria’s political space, history and networking?
In Tony Blair’s A JOURNEY, the former British Prime Minister talks in Chapter II, The Apprentice Leadership, about fear and courage. For instance, he remembers that: “The journey from Opposition to government had taken three years (in Tinubu’s case we could count from 1983 or from 1999 to 2023).
According to Blair, “It sounds like a short time. It’s not how it feels. Every day drags. Every week a fresh anxiety or event or statement disturbs the careful orchestration of the march from impotence to power. Every month your competitors or someone in the media simply bored or irritated by your success, looks to sully the brand, cheapen it, ridicule it. Every year there is a new height to be attained so that the momentum is not lost… Later, you learn courage in different situations: the first time onstage, when you wish you had never agreed to do it, you curse your pretensions and lament your ego, and want only to go back into the corner”.

In terms of courage, Tinubu demonstrated uncommon, incubus courage by removing fuel subsidy from day one, while also throwing the sleepy Nigerian proletariat into uncommon despair. Unfortunately, Tinubu himself became a victim of Incubus because the esteem and progressive results that some of his policies could have birthed have not palliated the excruciating suffering of the masses.

To be fair, Tinubu can not just be written off as a failure. For, in the following pages, you will read about his achievements in some sectors of the economy. Tax bill, increased revenue, NELFUND, loans to industries, stabilisation of the exchange rate, local government autonomy, regional development commissions, mining reforms, Lagos/Calabar Coastal Road, Badagry/Sokoto Highway, Ports’ rehabilitation, are just a few in the number of initiatives the Tinubu administration has birthed.

The challenge really is that Nigerians are said to be getting poorer while the governments at all levels are getting richer and awash with cash. Which economic paradigm results in the impoverishment of the people, while the government meant to serve them gets richer in quantum leaps? Again, who will tell the President about this?

In the following pages, there are articles assessing Tinubu’s performance, using his Renewed Hope Manifesto as a pivot. In Education, Health, Judiciary and Rule of Law, Fiscal policies, Insecurity, Religious Harmony, Sports, Politics, Infrastructure, Corruption, Agriculture, Oil and Gas, and Power, members of the Vanguard Board of Editors have assessed Tinubu’s three years in office. Whereas there is a scant agreement that he is trying to do his best for the nation, the more troubling consensus is that wahala dey o. But who will tell the President?