Sir: President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s speech after inauguration is inspiring and has set the tone for better Nigeria. However, speeches alone do not make good governance. We have history of many elected presidents with beautiful speeches but failed to match their words with actions after they settled in offices.
It is trite to say that the administration of Tinubu inherited baggage of challenges from his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari. While experts drawn from various sectors have advised the new government on how to sail through the mountains of difficulties, much will depend on how the president shops for, and assembles his cabinet. For instance, it took the former president, Muhammadu Buhari, six months to form his cabinet. Will President Bola Ahmed Tinubu toe this discouraging path?
Before inauguration, he had promised to form his cabinet on the basis of merit and competence. This is good. For the country to make headway, it has to stop appointments based on nepotism. Competent people should be appointed to manage ministries, agencies and parastatals for quick and accelerated development. But appointments should also be made to reflect the federal character. No region or states have the monopoly of competency. We have competent people across the 36 states. The president should strive to promote unity in his new appointment. The country has already been polarised along ethnic and religious fault lines. The president should see himself as a unifier.
For optimum performance, ministers should be given performance evaluation forms. Those who deliver should be celebrated and rewarded. Ministers who perform abysmally should be sanctioned.
President Tinubu’s inaugural speech in which he emphasised the removal of petroleum subsidy has stoked some panic in parts of the country. It is reported that queues have returned to filling stations across the country. There is imminent fear of hoarding by petroleum marketers.
Nobody can dispute the facts: petroleum subsidy has become a thorn in a flesh of successive governments. The subsidy has gulped trillions of naira since the time it was introduced. The Buhari administration mulled the idea of removing it but later passed it to the Tinubu administration. The subsidy is planned to end in June. Government has not made provision for it. The World Bank is averse to it and has granted Nigeria a loan of $800,000 to pay palliatives to Nigerians. With the Dangote refinery commissioned recently and expected to begin operation by July, may be the new government should not be in rush to withdraw subsidy. Let the refinery flood the country with adequate fuel to avoid scarcity of the commodity.
President Bola Tinubu should privatise or fix our four moribund refineries. Although, NNPC has become a limited liability company (LLC), we are yet to see it run like Saudi’s (Aramco) which continues to post billions of dollars as profit every year. It is high time these refineries which gulped billions of naira for their turn around maintenance annually are sold.
Nigerians are expecting the new government to tackle the security situation. President Tinubu should adopt carrot and stick in resolving the security logjam. Government should sit down with those who have genuine grievances, persuade them to lay down their arms. Criminals whose motives are to kill and extort ordinary Nigerians should be made to face music. The Tinubu government should overhaul our security architecture. It needs to recruit more security personnel and deploy technology for effective policing.
Incessant strikes have paralyzed the education sector and forced many students to engage in crimes. Let the government addresses the problem of universities once and for all.
•Ibrahim Mustapha,
Pambegua, Kaduna State.