Just akin to the leaders who profess capitalism, immediately upon assuming office President Tinubu is poised to effect drastic economic and political transformations in Nigeria overnight. In less than a month, he hurled decisions and policies with damning consequences. In the history of Nigeria prior to him, no president caused such changes in policy and government that bite the ordinary person deep in less than a month. And he does that consciously, not oblivious to the fact that changes in systems that involve human beings have to be gradual, just as in the tenets of the Theory of Evolution. Changes in woods and stones could be swift and instant and everything would fall into place.
Technocrats like Tinubu who profess capitalism so much believe in themselves and their design, plan and strategy as though it were pool-proof. And they most of the time operatively think they could transplant in Nigeria hook line and sinker what worked elsewhere perfectly, while they are aware pretty well of the depth of system failure in the country.
President Tinubu started with the radical drift since his inaugural speech by removing fuel subsidy in the country, and then lo and behold, before sunset of his inauguration day, fuel prices across the country surged from N220 to N500 on the average, before stabilizing at N550 in the subsequent days. This change was immediately followed by the removal from office of Godwin Emefiele as central bank governor, and Abdurrashid Bawa, as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Almost a week later, defense chiefs, police inspector general and customs boss were all removed from office, and replaced by new officers immediately.
Meanwhile, almost simultaneously, he signed the Students Loan Bill into law, which invariably indirectly predicts government higher institutions would start charging tuition fees. Somehow, in his campaigns, Tinubu alluded to solving funding problems of universities, promising to end the regime of the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ strikes during his time. This move in a way literally points to the removal of higher education subsidy. Already, a hike in the unit price of electricity was looming, billed for July 1.
In the mean, the president is shuffling through his list of ministers from top to bottom, reflecting on multidimensional considerations. The list is speculated to be substantially made of seasoned professionals who served capitalism for a very long time, part of the global scale. There are already media speculations that Professor Mohammed Ali Pate, the recently chosen CEO of Global Alliance for Immunization is going to be part. Since his choice of Chief of Staff, Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Senate President and Speaker House of Representatives are highly politically motivated, that of minister, looks like he is resisting political pressure to settle for high-profile technocrats. Of course, his resisting reappointing ministers of the last dispensation who distinguished themselves in distinction is also based on political considerations.
Now, while this column holds no objection to all the appointments and possibly the proposed appointments, being optimistic with the President, it strongly believes that the suspension and investigation of the erstwhile CBN governor and EFCC boss are not necessary, and President Tinubu shouldn’t stoop this low; his political sagacity should have been above that. These actions smack of higher political motivation than punishing misdemeanours. Those who follow the last lap of Tinubu’s campaign should have noticed that the campaign team was visibly concerned that Buhari’s naira redesign and swift cashless policy would adversely affect his electability and put his opponents at an advantage by making the APC unpopular. Specifically, elRufa’i went to court to stop the policy and insinuated publically if they ultimately win the presidential election, they would deal with some individuals in government behind the policy. And it was obvious that Emefiele, as CBN governor was the most important professional official behind it, while Bawa appeared to have put his claws and mechanisms to closely watch large cash movements during the elections, in which Tinubu as the ruling party APC candidate, was not spared. So, as soon as APC won the election, the government fiercened menacingly on the two senior government officials due to their role in blocking politicians from using huge sums of money, as was the practice, to buy or influence voter choice and decision.
Years before the 2023 elections, Buhari always condemned the use of money by politicians to influence voter decision, and on several occasions, he vowed to deal with the misconduct. In fact, you could see the first time he flouted court instruction which was uncharacteristic of him, was the time the court ruled against the government over the continuation of the use of old currency in the swap saga. My point here is, it is boldly noticeable that Buhari was bent to deal with the tendency even at the cost of APC’s victory. He did not care who was involved. Therefore, he used the right officials responsible, and those officials, who happened to be Emefiele and Bawa, worked with the instruction of the president then to execute the policy. It rationally follows then that, if anyone felt aggrieved, the person should face Buhari, not the officials who were under instruction. Therefore, since Tinubu appears to be poised to move Nigeria out of its present condition, politics of vengeance should be part of his priority.
As I was saying, the removal of fuel subsidy, initiating steps to the removal of tertiary education subsidy, and raising the price of electricity roughly within one month are rather insensitive to the feelings of the ordinary Nigerian, and rather rash. No matter how positively they would bear ultimately, they are hardly justified. Though the electricity price hike decision was retracted by the regulatory body yesterday, it was already conceived and allowed to go public.
At the announcement of fuel subsidy removal by the president, there were many promises by the government, of the introduction of cash transfer to economically weak citizens and salary increase to government workers and many other moves to assuage the Labor and prevent strike and rancor. However, the sincerity of the decision must be questioned. In countries where governments are sensitive and responsive to citizens, most of the effect-cushioning strategies must be in place before finally executing the policy.
Again, in a country that is ravaged by corruption and lack of good governance, which simultaneously is the root of all the woes afflicting the country, the sincere way to start is by a big example in dealing with corrupt officials, be they who. Once in the first six months there are arrests and prosecution of high profile personalities whether royal or political, as this will give the government more legitimacy, acceptability and courage to implement economic policies that would temporarily bite on the ordinary man. However, while the 8-Star luxury lifestyle of governors, senators and other high-profile political office holders continues in extravagance and wanton show of affluence and corruption is the norm, no president would have the legitimacy to remove fuel subsidy. Proponents say with a sweet mouth that money mopped up from settling subsidy will be channelled to sectors that benefit the ordinary Nigerian. This will succeed if it were angels working with the president.
Otherwise how believable is it that the government that cannot identify and punish the abusers of the subsidy regime can be at the same time firm in allocating and using the money for any beneficial reason? It’s rather illogical that the government is planning and taking steps to remove tertiary education subsidy by introducing tuition and at the same time claiming to direct ‘subsidy money’ to fund basic sectors including higher education. Ironical, isn’t it?
Any economic transformation in Nigeria must begin with cutting the cost of governance and identifying and punishing corruption at high places, citing examples with those presumably untouchable. Then such things as fuel subsidy removal, if sincere, and there’s no alternative, can follow.
Hamid is a lecturer Pen Resource University, Gombe
