The Nation Newspaper

Category: Bolaji Ogundele

  • Tinubu and Xi: Two reformers under one roof

    Tinubu and Xi: Two reformers under one roof

    The week in review met President Bola Ahmed Tinubu offshore. He arrived the People’s Republic of China on the first day of the week for a five-day long three-fold official visit. Right from arrival till he left the shores of the country on Friday, it was all activities; attending meetings to negotiate for Nigeria’s piece from the international cake of affluence. Like His spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, had hinted days before his departure, while in China, President Tinubu met with the Chinese business community, the ones who run the mega corporations making impacts in different parts of the world, some of which businesses already have presence in Nigeria.

    From Tuesday, when the real work started, after visiting two of the big businesses with established partnerships with Nigeria; China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) and Huawei Technologies’ Beijing Research Centre, both of which leaderships he held in-depth discussions on partnerships and furthering existing agreements, President Tinubu met with his primary host, President Xi Jinping of China.

    Just like in past major outgoings, the Nigerian President did not go out there for just the cruise, it was always a serious business, which entire value must be explored and exploited. Right from the moment the two presidents shook hands on ‘welcome’ and ‘how are you doing’, Tinubu did not leave his host in doubt of why he agreed to honour the invitation. They went straight to supervising the very critical part of their meeting; signing of bilateral agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MoU).

    The meeting saw the signing of five MoUs, all attending to various aspects of both countries’ national and economic lives. A statement by Ngelale, who witnessed the event, said the agreements signed included Cooperation plan between both countries on jointly promoting the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the peaceful application of Nuclear Energy; Memorandum of Understanding on strengthening cooperation on Human Resource Development under the Global Development Initiative; Memorandum of Understanding on Media Exchange and Cooperation; and Memorandum of Understanding between China Media Group and the Nigerian Television Authority.

    Done with that business, it was time for both leaders to voice their minds, state their expected mutual obligations and expectation, as well ‘massage egos’. More importantly, it was another platform for Tinubu to sell the idea of Nigeria as the best investment destination and an ideal diplomatic partner to the Government and People of China.

    He stressed the need to further strengthen the Nigeria-China relations to advance trade and economic development programmes, leveraging Nigeria’s position as Africa’s largest economy and most populous nation. He pointed out that Nigeria’s young population presents a driving force for economic growth and cross-sectoral programs, making it an attractive partner for China. He also announced the upgrade of Nigeria-China relations to a comprehensive developmental partnership, aiming for robust development, stability, and security in the West African sub-region.

    “This is an important visit for Nigeria and the rest of Africa, as I arrive in my capacity as the Chairman of ECOWAS. I thank you for the high-level of honour accorded to us. Relations between China and Nigeria have indeed lasted for over half a century and should be further strengthened to advance our trade and economic development programmes. Nigeria holds great potential as the country with the largest population in Africa and is the biggest economy with a very young population that can drive economic growth and cross-sectoral programmes.

    Read Also: Protest not solution to recent fuel price hike – NANS

    “We have upgraded the relationship to more than what is just strategic — but a comprehensive developmental partnership. This comprehensive strategic partnership should result in robust development, stability, and security in the West African sub-region. This is very crucial,” President Tinubu said.

    To reassure China that the deal he is selling is insured and that his administration is not static, but in the process of making Nigeria fit-for-purpose for investors, especially those from China, he reminded Xi that he is a reformer like him and that the fruits of his reforms are designed to benefit investors. He said his administration remains committed to sustainable growth through the effective implementation of ongoing economic reforms.

    “We believe that President Xi has demonstrably reformed the Chinese economy, and our reform programme in Nigeria is on a similar course. I am a reformer with verifiable antecedents. We have recognized the need to reform our economy, and we are doing so diligently across tax and tariff reviews, to various other segments of our nation’s economy. Trading and investment partners will have easy access to bring in their investments and seamlessly take their resources out”, the President stated.

    Then on Wednesday, Tinubu met with the Chinese Premier, Li Qiang, for a bilateral meeting. The message at this meeting was all about securing an equal stake and benefit for Africa in the alliance with the People’s Republic of China. Almost like passing the message before the third leg of his visit, which was his participation in the Beijing Summit of Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which is China’s rout into the deeper African continent.

    After all said and done, his message to China through Li, was “Africa is a huge opportunity for economic development. As great people, we are willing to partner for progress and development. What is most important will be the focus of FOCAC in areas on which we can collaborate to make the relationship mutually beneficial to all of us”.

    On Thursday, President Tinubu had a message to the rest of the world, considering the prevalent situation virtually globally, he re-echoed a call he has made severally and on different occasions, especially whenever he hosted emissaries of other nations at home or whenever he found himself addressing nations at multilateral or bilateral events, just like FOCAC.

    Those who have consistently followed him will remember that President Tinubu is a faithful Apostle of global collaboration and his philosophy for this is that “lofty goals are achieved through global collaboration”. So when he was speaking at the opening of the Forum, he noted that FOCAC had exemplified the importance of global collaboration in achieving shared progress and prosperity, highlighting its success and the broader partnership between China and Africa.

    He said global progress is not a zero-sum game, where one side’s gain is another’s loss. Instead, by working together and seeking win-win solutions, nations can create opportunities for sustainable development and shared prosperity. He said the China-Africa partnership, built on trust, mutual respect, and common goals, is a shining example of this collaborative approach and stressed the need to maintain momentum, with peaceful dialogue, transparent business practices, and diplomatic conflict resolution at the forefront of efforts.

    He maintained that this partnership is not just about shared history, but a bold collective vision for the future. By joining hands and pooling strengths and resources, Africa and China can unlock unprecedented levels of growth and development for their nations. Tinubu’s message resonates deeply when you consider the fact that the FOCAC partnership has already yielded significant benefits, with trade between Africa and China reaching an estimated $280 billion. It is believed that by the end of the Forum last Friday, both sides would have deepened their cooperation, embracing diverse perspectives and reinforcing a vision for a multi-polar world where cooperation is key to solving global challenges.

    Though he still participated on Thursday at a high-level FOCAC meeting on peace and security, in his capacity as Chairman of ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, where he charged world leaders on the need to embrace multilateralism and cooperative partnership over protectionism in achieving global peace and security, the next meeting that held an immediate and intimate meaning for Nigerians was the meeting with members of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organization in China (NIDO China) and the Nigerian community, held at the China World Hotel in Beijing on Friday.

    At this meeting, he addressed the situation at home and the reaction of most Nigerians to how things are progressing. He drew an analogy with the situation in the country of their sojourn. He did not deny knowledge of the fact that the effects of his reforms and process of achieving growth and development for Nigeria have been harsh and squeezing in many cases, but like he once said, weaning a child off breast-feeding does not come easy, but it must be done and the earlier the less embarrassing.

    “Nigeria is going through reforms and we are taking very bold and unprecedented decisions. For example, you might have been hearing from home in the last few days about fuel prices. But, can we help it? Can we develop good roads like you have here? You see electricity being constant in quantity and quality. You see water supply, constant and running, and you see their good schools. And we say we want to hand over a banner without stain to our children?

    “What is the critical part to get us there if we cannot take hard decisions to pave the way for a country that is blessed and so talented? So many of you are so talented, speaking very fluent Mandarin, it is what you contribute and tell them at home that will reflect in the attitude of our people. The more you want everything free, it will become more expensive and long-delayed to achieve meaningful development”, he said.

    Meanwhile, it did not mean that while he was in China he ceased setting things straight at home, as a matter of fact, he made appointments and responded to critical developments requiring presidential attention back home. For instance, besides reminding the world of his solid relationship with his deputy, Vice President Kashim Shettima, during the Number Two Man’s birthday on Monday, showering praises on him and describing him with the most ornamental language, Mr. President also made new appointments. For instance, he appointed a new Board for the Bank of Industry (BoI), which was announced on Monday.

    He mourned the matriarch of the Yar’adua Dynasty, Hajiya Dada Yar’adua, the mother of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, the late General Shehu Musa Yar’adua and Senator Abdulaziz Musa Yaradua, on Tuesday. He lauded the feat of Nigeria’s first paralympic medalist, Eniola Bolaji, at the Paris Paralympics, still on Tuesday, and he gave assurance to the victims and families of victims of terrorist in Yobe that they will get justice. That was on Wednesday.

    Then on Thursday, he directed Vice President Shettima to step in and get to the roots of the brewing crisis from the sudden fuel price hike as well as the scarcity of the product. The Vice President must have gotten back to him on that. Like they say, that buck stops at his table. When he comes Nigerians we will know what he thinks about it all. Same day he mourned the death of National Chairman of the Alliance of Democracy (AD), Chief Michael Koleosho, recalling his political sagacity.

    It is a new week from today and the President is expected to pull new strings in the new week. Let us wait to see what those strings will be.

  • Presidents do need ‘Brief Work Stays’ away from the corridors once, once

    Presidents do need ‘Brief Work Stays’ away from the corridors once, once

    It was a week filled with a lot of surprises and flashes of unexpected actions, right from the start of it. It was the week President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced plans to briefly vacation in France and it was the week he returned again to perform a very critical and sacred national assignment; the swearing in of a new Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). Although it started out as though it was going to be a very quiet and uneventful week, it gradually and eventually turned out to be more than it pretended it had to offer.

    On Sunday, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Chief Ajuri Ngelale, announced that the President had been scheduled to travel to France the following day. “President Bola Tinubu will embark on a trip to France on Monday, August 19, departing from Abuja, the nation’s capital. The President will return to the country after his brief work stay in France”, was Ngelale’s message and it was the message that set the tone for the feeling that it was going to be an easy week, with less work. I bet most people later discovered they misread how it was going to pan out.

    Some have since been wondering what the ‘brief work stay’ is all about, especially as they could not hear or read that it was a state visit, a bilateral or multilateral event. While not sounding like yours truly is in the President’s mind or took the trip with him, it is easily one of the actions of a leader’s easiest to decode and explain. He is the President of a nation of an estimated 231 million people, having to listen and attend to every voice and interest, you will agree that the needed energy to service such a huge mass cannot be just a marathon, it needs to be constantly relieved and recharged.

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    A very popular and present example of what I am trying to describe is the American system. The President of the United States (US) does not just continue going on at the White House, once in a while he is expected to visit Camp David, the Presidential Retreat home. Though it is on the American soil, the feeling of the President while heading there, each time, would be “phew, some respite again”, another moment to escape, not just the maddening noise of the American bureaucracy and other cares, but the heavy weight of trying to show the way to the rest of the world.

    Just as a citizen, who is the head of a home and executive an or manager of a section of some sort of organisation, you already know what it feels like escaping to be with friends and buddies at your regular pub or garden.

    Okay, let us say for you it is not an escape from the demands of family and work, you should also know how feverishly you would need quiet and calm when you need to do some brains-tasking thinking or studying, just the way a writer seeks the quietness and serenity of unpopulated spaces to be able to birth the next finest work of art. You might have also heard of how captains of sea-going vessels would need seclusion from time to time, in their cabins, to be able to find their rhythms and coordinates accurately.

    So it should not be difficult to figure out what Tinubu’s ‘brief work stay’ in France is all about; he is leading a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and variously diverse nation, one of the largest in the world, with all the octopus-like tendencies. Imagine how very demanding that could be. Just imagine, very objectively now, how much energy, in whatever form, that will take from you per second. Tell yourself if you would not burn out and need constant refreshing and recharging. Ensure to focus on the current socioeconomic situation and the attempt by economic and political oppositions trying to undo what you are trying to do to make life easier for your family and business organisation. Need I paint the picture any further?

    After leaving on Monday for the brief get-away, most likely to reassess the progress of things and probably use the time to open some new diplomatic channels, everybody back home around the Villa had heaved the relief sigh, as the President is known to be a workaholic, who has both the day and night schedules. However, on Thursday, news broke that the President might be heading back home that evening, suddenly it became public knowledge that a new Chief Justice of the Federation was due to be sworn in on Friday, following the retirement of Justice Olukayode Ariwoola.

    He arrived early Friday morning, had a few hours of rest and confirmed the rumour of his return at some minutes past 11am for the swearing in ceremony of the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). Actually, he suspended his work stay in France to personally handle the administration of this particular ceremony for many reasons. Besides the fact that it is a statutory duty of the President, this was one of the very rare occasions as the incoming CJN is a woman, the second in Nigeria’s judicial history. Most emotionally, this is someone coming from his Lagos State home-base, someone he seems to know from her family background.

    Addressing her as ‘Tokunbo’, a name not many Nigerians knew her by, safe for people who knew her from way back and back to her homestead, then the President referred to her backgrounds, saying “distinguished ladies and gentlemen, Nigeria’s acting Chief Justice Kudirat Olatokunbo Kekere-Ekun comes to this position with admirable family and professional pedigrees”. You only say that about people you are deeply familiar with. It has been gathered at some point that Justice Kekere-Ekun was a judge in Lagos when Tinubu was the Governor of Lagos State.

    Much more than that, the President himself indicated his very popular family in Lagos and that of Mdadam CJN are not strangers when towards the end of his speech, after the swearing in ceremony, he said “today, a day on our calendar, is divine. You’re a Lagosian, and I am one. To the memory of our both parents, I say God’s speed”. That moment has been described as one of his most emotional moments. It has even been described as one of those “Lagos moments” in the Council Chambers of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa.

    Beyond the emotions of the moment, it was another opportunity for him to charge the systems to rev and serve their purposes. This time around it was the legal system. He charged the new chief office-holder to fill the office properly, drive the system as it is designed run. He urged the acting CJN to defend the independence of the judiciary and promote the cause of justice, emphasising the importance of strengthening mechanisms that will uphold and enhance integrity, discipline, and transparency in the judiciary.

    “Undoubtedly, the position of the Chief Justice of Nigeria comes with enormous responsibilities as the head of all judicial institutions in the country. It is a position of considerable influence that demands temperance and sobriety. The occupant of the office must exude the highest level of integrity in the discharge of their duties. This is more so because of the finality of the Supreme Court’s judgments.

    “I, therefore, urge your Lordship to be faithful and loyal to the Constitution when discharging your duty as the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria. I also encourage you to defend the judiciary’s independence and always promote the cause of justice. It is vital that you strengthen all mechanisms for integrity, discipline, and transparency in the judicial sector, and pursue other reforms or initiatives to sustain and build public confidence in the judiciary”, the President charged.

    Even before he returned, he never stopped working from ‘yonder’. A number of significant appointments and reappoints were made during the week. For instance, while he was in France, he replaced Alhaji Jalal Ahmad Arabi as Executive Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), with Professor Abdullahi Saleh Usman. Same Monday, he appointed a new management team for the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), with Engineer Jennifer Adighije as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.

    He continued with new appointments on Tuesday, selecting Mr. Daser David as President/Chief Executive Officer of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI). He also appointed Reuben Oshomah as Executive Director, Marketing, and Mrs. Adama Kure as Executive Director, Finance and Administration of the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT).

    It was the same Tuesday that Ngelale, who doubles as Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action (SPEC), announce President Tinubu’s authorization for the establishment of the Climate Accountability and Transparency Portal and other measures to ensure efficiency and accountability in the nation’s participation in the 29th UN Climate Change Conference (COP 29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, slated for November 11-22, 2024. The measure in this new drive will help Nigeria save nothing less than N10 billion in costs at the COP29.

    On Wednesday he did more appointments/reappointments and approved the conversion of an institution. He started with the reappointment of Professor Abdurrahman Abba Sheshe as Chief Medical Director of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, for a second and final term of four years, effective from December 5, 2023. He also reappointed Professor Yusuf Jibrin Bara as Chief Medical Director of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH), Bauchi, for a second and final term of four years. Same day, he approved the takeover and conversion of Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, Lafia, to the Federal University of Lafia Teaching Hospital, Nasarawa, in response to a request by the Nasarawa State Government.

    He also registered with the personal feelings of specific individuals and communities back home. For instance, On Wednesday, he sent out his condolences and sympathies to the government and people of Jigawa State, especially those directly affected by a devastating flooding which claimed lives and destroyed yet to be accurately quantified amount of property. Late same day, he mourned the gruesome murder of a traditional ruler in Sokoto State, Alhaji Isa Bawa, District Head of Gatawa District in Sabon Birni council area, reassuring Nigerians that his administration is aggressively removing threats to ensure the security of the nation and that these desperate acts of terror will be effectively countered.

    Now we are in a new week, all that is required of you, that is if you have chosen to be faithful with reading this weekly column, is to wait to see what the President will unveil in the new week. Stay on.

  • Council of State’s Vote of Confidence, A Needed Boost for the Marathon of Reforms

    Council of State’s Vote of Confidence, A Needed Boost for the Marathon of Reforms

    It was somewhat of a busy week for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for many reasons, but it was also a week that brought lots of reassurance and satisfaction for him. Busy because it was another week to juggle both local and international assignments and make a perfect delivery to his primary mandate; the Nigerian people. He sat over the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Monday, convened the maiden National Council of State (NCS) meeting of his administration on Tuesday, and jetted out to Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, for a state visit on the invitation of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

    The week also came with what has been considered one of the most exciting experiences of his stay in office, so far, because it was the week during which one of the most important organs of the Nigerian state, the National Council of State, which consists of those you will consider the most important figures of the country, gathered at the State House, at his behest, to deliberate on recent developments around the country, including the recent #EndBadGovernance nationwide protest and the embedded treasonous elements it came with, and decided to make a strong solidarity statement for democracy by passing a vote of confidence on President Tinubu.

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    The import of convening of the Council of State meeting and the significance of the action it took in passing a vote of confidence would be better appreciated when you understand what the Council is all about. The National Council of State is an organ possessing an advisory status that is higher than what the statutes bestow on even the FEC. It draws its significance from the nature of its composition, which includes the President himself as the Chairman of Council; the Vice President as Deputy Chairman; former presidents and heads of state; all former Chief Justices of Nigeria; President of the Senate; Speaker of the House of Representatives; all the Governors of the states of the Federation; Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation; the National Security Adviser (NSA), and others.

    Now imagine this august gathering, after listening to briefs from various members of the administration, including a security brief by the NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, who revealed to them that the nation and the government just managed to escape a trap set by those who had other plans than protesting hunger or insecurity, then deciding to condemn the use of subterfuge to effect a change of democratically elected government and passing a vote of confidence on the President, condemning the unconstitutional attempt and giving kudos to the citizens. It must have been one of the best days of his stay in office.

    Giving an account of the meeting, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, said the Council, especially after listening to the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, commended Nigerians for resisting unconstitutional attempts to alter the government, emphasizing that any change must be through the ballot box. He said the NSA had reassured the gathering of the security agencies’ readiness to protect Nigeria’s democracy and territorial integrity.

    Alake also revealed that the meeting featured presentations from seven ministers, including Alake himself, on the progress, prospects, and challenges in their respective ministries, with a focus on the Renewed Hope Agenda’s emphasis on economic diversification. The ministers who made presentations included those from the Ministries of Economy, Finance, Budget, Works, Trade and Investment, and Agriculture.

    Alake noted that the presentations were well-received, with positive feedback from the Council. The meeting’s composition included former heads of state, governors, the National Security Adviser, Attorney-General, and other stakeholders. The gathering reaffirmed the commitment to democracy and economic diversification, with a unified resolve to address challenges and capitalize on opportunities.   

    Also, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), expressed unwavering support for President Tinubu, passing a unanimous vote of confidence in his leadership. Updating journalists on the outcome of the meeting, Chairman of the NGF, who is also the Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, highlighted the governors’ satisfaction with the presentations by members of the federal cabinet. An executive session between the NGF members and President Tinubu followed, resulting in frank and fruitful discussions. AbdulRazaq said, “members of the NGF also passed a vote of confidence on Mr. President. We wish him well and pray for God’s guidance for him”

    The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, also presented a reassuring picture of Nigeria’s economy to the Council, updating the gathering on the progress made in implementing the President’s macroeconomic policies. He highlighted encouraging data from the first half of the year, showcasing economic growth, a surplus in trade and current account balances, stabilizing exchange rates, and slowing inflation. Edun attributed these improvements to support from foreign and domestic investors, particularly in infrastructure projects and foreign direct investment.

    Edun further identified significant opportunities for growth, citing non-oil exports, which reached $55 billion last year, and the service sector, including software, computer, accounting, and personnel services. He emphasized the potential for young Nigerians to provide services globally through the internet and telephones, creating a new avenue for economic growth. He assured the Council that efforts to address the high cost of living, support agriculture, industry, and small-scale businesses would continue. With an optimistic outlook, Edun concluded that Nigeria’s economy and society are poised for growth and progress, driven by the administration’s economic policies and interventions.

    Listening to these updates by officials of the government definitely reassured those you will describe as the ‘key stakeholders of the Nigerian Federation’ and definitely earned President Tinubu their confidence and needed support.

    A day after securing that landmark support and vote of confidence, President Tinubu went on pursuing the agenda for a stronger national economy. You will recall that one of the targets of his administration is attracting more foreign direct investments through stronger diplomatic ties with friendly nations. Also, he has made it clear from the onset that strengthening diplomatic and bilateral relations with other African countries will lead the focus of his administration’s foreign affairs policy. So on Wednesday he embarked on a three-day state visit to one of the neighbouring countries within the Gulf of Guinea, the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, on the invitation of Equatorial Guinean President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

    While in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, the landmark agreement on Gulf of Guinea Pipeline Project was signed, a $2.5 billion project, which is meant to deliver Nigeria’s natural gas feedstock to Equatorial Guinea’s LNG, gas, and methanol plants. The project is expected to create substantial employment opportunities in the gas value chain, with construction of the pipeline involving workers from both countries. According to a statement by the President’s spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, that agreement covered legislative and regulatory measures for the gas pipeline, establishment and operation, transit of natural gas, ownership of the gas pipeline, and general principles.

    Beyond the gas treaty, the two presidents agreed to boost trade between the countries and explore joint export opportunities. The visit also, among other exciting benefits, saw to the resuscitation of the Joint National Commission, with its first meeting scheduled for November. The Commission, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, will facilitate cooperation on safety and security in the Gulf of Guinea.

    Meanwhile, the visit to Equatorial Guinea was another platform for President Tinubu to call the attention of leaders of the African continent to the common challenges facing Africa and its people. To him, solving the myriad of challenges facing the continent would continue to be elusive until solutions are sought, developed and applied from within.

    “Concerning Africa, conflicts and conflict resolution were discussed. We discussed various areas of conflicts and what we can do to promote peace. We talked about promotion of peace and stability in our countries, and growth and prosperity on our continent. In the same way that Europe and America have kept themselves and found a solution for their conflicts, we have to look at both inadequate capital, industrialization efforts, research and development programmes, and enlighten our people, navigate our way through problems. Instead of the crisis and conflicts that we see in the Republic of Congo, and others, we have to look inwards to solve problems ourselves”, the President said.

    The week saw more than just the Council of State meeting and the state visit to Equatorial Guinea. There was a FEC meeting on Monday, which was preceded by the swearing in of a new Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, in the person of Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack. Monday was also the International Day of the Youth and the President ensured to use the opportunity to reassure Nigerian youths of his administration’s commitment to their development and expressed his confidence in the ingenuity and versatility of the Nigerian youth.

    In the new week, he is expected to continue with taking steps at realizing the Nigeria of our dream, especially with the boost recently received from the Council of State and the Governors’ Forum.

  • EndBadGovernance protest: How Tinubu’s appeal mainly quelled the fire

    EndBadGovernance protest: How Tinubu’s appeal mainly quelled the fire

    It was yet another hectic week, leading into some ease. Compared to the one before it, this last week really brought some relief to all Nigerians, all as in everyone who has one reason or the other to be identified with the country. It was the week when both the led and the leader breathed a sigh of relief. The pages of the dailies bore it all; the carnage and sheer destructed that attended the end of the previous week, gradually waned as the new week dawned and the new one largely remained peaceful, especially in states that witnessed the fury of the protest-turned-riot at its onset.

    Although the abrupt slow-down of the protest last week owed so much to the tempo with which the destruction picked off from day one. A protest that was meant to stretch through ten days started out with tens of corpses and billions of naira worth of merchandises lost to theft and destruction, that was enough warning to any attentive community because if the action continue with that speed, it would mean that the mutually assured destruction (MAD) was built to go round for all, including the hero and the villain.

    So we all, as a nation, at least the right thinking lot of us, realised this could not be allowed to continue so the papers started reporting calls from all angles, including from those who were hitherto identified as enablers and cheerers of the protest. After day one, people like Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN) started calling for an end to the protest-turned-riot. Subsequent days saw the number depleting because there was no guarantee the rioters were going to be civil. Some states, like Kano and Kaduna, resorted to curfews.

    However, much more than the call for ‘fall back’ by the instigators of the protest-turned-riot call, the gesture-in-faith by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to address Nigerians on issues around the protest quelled much of the fire lit nationwide by the raucous action. On Sunday morning, the President made a nationwide broadcast, which was repeated twice through the day. Focused on the circumstances that have led to the hardship that occasioned the protests, Tinubu would neither beg the question, nor hide behind the needle, he said it as it was, especially why the bitter pills of reforms have to be the next option for us all, if we must survive as a nation.

    There is economic hardship, an offshoot of which is the pervasive hunger in the land. He is well aware of this and right from the moment he set out as President, he has made efforts to temper these or the circumstances that led to them. However, whatever wanted to happen has started happening, efforts and ideas of government notwithstanding, and it already had led to the undesirable, what then was the next line of action. He faced up to the people who elected him to lead them.

    He appealed to protesters to refrain from violence and destruction, acknowledging the pain and frustration driving the protests and emphasized his administration’s commitment to listening and addressing their concerns, urging Nigerians to work together to build a brighter future. He also highlighted his administration’s efforts to stabilize the economy, improve infrastructure, and create opportunities for young people, assuring that results would soon be visible and concrete. He cautioned against allowing “enemies of democracy” to use the protests to promote an unconstitutional agenda that would set Nigeria back on its democratic journey.

    The President also emphasized the importance of choosing hope over fear, unity over division, and progress over stagnation. He urged security operatives to maintain peace, law, and order while respecting human rights conventions, stressing that the safety and security of all Nigerians are paramount. By appealing for calm and unity, the President seeks to address the grievances of protesters while ensuring the nation’s democratic and economic progress.

    He reiterated his administration’s commitment to improving the lives of Nigerians, especially the youth, through various initiatives. He announced the processing of N45.6 billion for payment to students and institutions under the student loan scheme and the establishment of CREDICORP with over N200 billion to facilitate essential product acquisition. Additionally, he revealed the release of extra N50 billion each for the student loan and Credit Corporation from recovered crime proceeds.

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    The President further highlighted several initiatives aimed at empowering young people, including the IDiCE program, which has secured $620 million to create millions of IT and technical jobs. Other programme included SUPA, NIYA, and NATEP. He also announced the release of over N570 billion to states for livelihood support, nano-grants to 600,000 nano-businesses, and single-digit interest loans to micro and small businesses. Furthermore, he highlighted the construction of MSME hubs, which have created 240,000 jobs, and the signing of the National Minimum Wage into law.

    He also unveiled ambitious initiatives aimed at stimulating economic growth, including the inauguration of the Renewed Hope City and Estate, which aims to complete 100,000 housing units over three years, creating thousands of jobs. He announced incentives for farmers to increase food production, including the removal of tariffs and import duties on essential items for six months to drive down prices. These initiatives, as have been analyzed by different persons and authorities, demonstrate the administration’s commitment to improving the lives of Nigerians and driving economic growth.

    He did not fail to assure Nigerians that his administration is taking concrete steps to address food security and reduce hunger, revealing that he has been meeting with governors and key ministers to accelerate food production, targeting the cultivation of over 10 million hectares of land for essential food crops.

    He outlined a collaborative approach, where the federal government will provide necessary incentives, while states will provide land, to put millions of people to work and increase food production. This initiative aims to tackle food insecurity and ensure Nigerians have access to affordable and nutritious food.

    To enhance agricultural productivity, he said his administration has ordered mechanized farming equipment, including tractors and planters, worth billions of Naira from the United States, Belarus, and Brazil. He confirmed that the equipment are on their way to Nigeria, demonstrating his commitment to addressing food insecurity and ensuring a food-secure future for the nation.

    He also highlighted significant economic advancements made by his administration in the past 14 months. He noted that aggregate government revenues have more than doubled to over N9.1 trillion in the first half of 2024, thanks to efforts to block leakages, introduce automation, and mobilize funding creatively.

    The President pointed to increased productivity in the non-oil sector, reduced debt service from 97% to 68% of revenue, and clearance of $5 billion in outstanding foreign exchange obligations without adverse impact on programs. These achievements have given the government more financial freedom to fund essential social services like education and healthcare, resulting in the highest allocations ever to State and Local Governments from the Federation Account.

    He also highlighted progress on major infrastructure projects, including roads, bridges, railways, power, and oil and gas developments, which will create thousands of jobs and boost economic output. Additionally, he announced a resurgence in the oil and gas industry, with increased oil production to 1.61 million barrels per day and renewed investor interest, including two Foreign Direct Investments worth over half a billion dollars.

    Over all, President Tinubu’s appeal to the #EndBadGovernance protesters and their organizers was to suspend further demonstrations and engage in dialogue, reiterating his commitment to democratic good governance, respect for constitutional rights, and protection of innocent citizens’ lives and properties.

    He defended his economic policies, including the removal of fuel subsidies and abolition of multiple foreign exchange systems, as necessary decisions to reverse decades of economic mismanagement. He acknowledged that these decisions may have caused temporary hardship, but assured that they were crucial for the country’s long-term economic growth. He finally assured citizens that he is focused on delivering good governance, acknowledging that he is ultimately responsible for the country’s progress. 

    Of course the protests have virtually disappeared in most of the places where they were most violent, but then some copycats in the states that had been considered rather reasonable started steering up unrest, charging the country up again. This development has been attributed to the call by people like the Publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, who has consistently made calls for occupation of the streets and has been most active in the latest unrest. By the way, Sowore is making these current calls and giving the directives from the comfort of his home in far away United States of America.

    Meanwhile, a lot have happened between Sunday and this week, at least throughout the last week. For instance, besides every other thing, on Friday he was host to a group of eminent Nigerians and leaders of thought, led by former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, at the State House. The elder statesmen and women came with what they consider as priority and which they want him to make his priority too. The group, known as The Patriots, wanted him to call another constituent assembly of Nigerians, an assembly that will point to the next focus, coming up with a new constitution, reflecting our plurality as a nation.

    However, as we all know that there is a primary focus of the administration, right from when it started out; Tinubu is sold to recovering Nigeria from the brink of economic capitulation. Though he is not opposed to the view of The Patriots, which draws its membership from all parts of the country, it would not have been an advisable to abandon the already set target, as a matter of fact, it would be a waste of time and efforts allowing a distraction (this is my personal view of this development though). But he listened and told them he would want to deliver on the primary goal of his mandate first, which is putting Nigeria on a stable economic footing first, then shift focus to other concerns.

    “The avoidance of chaos is necessary to build this country and move its aspirations forward for the benefit of all of us. I am currently preoccupied with economic reform. That is my first priority. Once this is in place, as soon as possible, I will look at other options, including constitutional review as recommended by you and other options”, the President said.

    Meanwhile, other events and activities still found space in the President’s schedule during the week. It was the week he met as well as made some appointments. For instance, he had to step a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting down for a National Security Council meeting, a move that reflected his scale of priorities. Though the FEC was scheduled to sit, the mood of the nation was more like in need of something security attention.

    He also made some appoints for a number of critical federal agencies, including some under the Ministry of Education. For example, on Tuesday he appointed seven new heads of agencies and programmes under the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development. Same thing went for the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), for which he appointed a new board and the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), for which he appointed 21 new federal commissioners.

    He continued with the spree on Wednesday, appointing governing boards at three levels of the nation’s educational spheres. He appointed new governing councils for thirteen federal universities and tertiary institutions across the country; appointed new governing councils for six federal colleges of education across the country; and appointed new governing councils for the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, Akwa Ibom State, and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria, Kaduna State.

    It is a new week from today and new tasks would have been set before the President as part of his scheme at achieving his economic dream for Nigeria. We can only wait to see what the week will throw at the administration and the whole of the nation.  

  • On new minimum wage, local crude sales deal

    On new minimum wage, local crude sales deal

    It has been a particularly eventful week for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the account of the very many events and occurrences happening almost about the same time. More than any other event or occurrence, the #EndBadGovernance protest imposed the heaviest of the weights the President had to handle during the week. Remember the buck stops at his table, including the way every Nigeria feels in his bedroom. For instance, among the people who joined the protest was a young lady who claimed she has been unmarried because of bad governance, at 37 years of age.

    To be clear, the President already declared his stance about protests, including this one; he is never opposed to protests, it is a right of citizens, especially in a democracy, to express their feelings and freedom, however it must be a peaceful protest. He has led protests in the part for purposes of good governance, so he has nothing against peaceful, focused protests. The only concern for him is an agenda robed in the garb of a protest, an agenda that does not look like something directed at taking good life back to the people, a political agenda.

    Protest is not the problem anywhere in the world, it becomes a problem when it becomes a cover for criminals to make life difficult for law abiding citizens, like the scenario that played out in Kano and some other states on Thursday, the Day One of the protest. The law was broken down and led to killing, looting, destruction of private and public property. He actually warned against a chaotic protest and the part that really gives him concern about it was the harsh impact it would always have on the ordinary, vulnerable people.

    “We are not afraid of protests. Our concern is the ordinary people, and the damages that will be done. Till today, I cannot forget the brand new 60 and 100 seater buses, down there in Lagos that were burnt down, and we are now complaining of transportation”, he had warned exactly a week before the protest took off on Thursday. By the time the dusts settled Thursday evening, which was day one, not less than twenty persons had been counted dead from different parts of the country. His fears were confirmed and as President he definitely has been worried at the turn of events, and pained because the very reason for his sleepless nights and risks-taking is what the protest has imposed further. It was meant to primarily be a protest against hunger, but it eventually drove food prices up further, which was what he already warned against.

    Gladly though, the disruption did not start early enough to take the whole week over. It started on Thursday, drove people away from their businesses, kept vehicles off the roads, at least till the last work day, being Friday, but before then events had happened, positive enough to calm nerves. Prior to the ‘Days of Rage’, very important events and activities already occurred and have eased some tension and had given assurance to some Nigerians.

    For instance, Monday got marked as the day President signed the new national minimum wage bill into law. It was also the day he had to demonstration his care for the Nigerian worker by putting an ongoing Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on hold so he could attend to the leadership of the National Assembly and signed the bill they had passed into law. He has always emphasized the importance of the Labour force, without which cooperation the development of the state would suffer.

    Even if it was just for the consideration of the process that led to that day, it would have been enough reason to put the FEC on hold to get it out of the way. The process of arriving at the new national minimum, you will recall, was not just a walk in the park. It was a journey that saw strikes and threats of it, activities that saw the nation, its economy and people strained and stressed. So when it eventually got to the point of playing the final role, which was signing the bill into law, putting the FEC on hold for a few minutes was nothing compared to the overall gain.

    Though he would not say anything more than appreciating the National Assembly, which collaborated with him to ensure that the workforce is given something reasonably batter than the previous one, he ensured the day was achieved. After the ‘thank you’ to the lawmakers, he invited some of the members of the cabinet who have had one role or the other to play in achieving the day to speak. “All I can say is thank you very much for the expeditious act”, were his words at the ceremony.

    President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who led the National Assembly leadership to the Council Chambers for the brief ceremony, explained what the new law meant for the economy and how it expands beyond just a law that sees to people getting paid for their labour.   

    “The national minimum wage amendment is for the whole nation; for the federal government, for the state’s, for the local governments, for the private sector and even for individual employers. So I think this is a great day for the workers in the country. We are not only doubling the minimum wage, we have added something on top. Initially it was N30,000, now it is N70,000. Like I said, this is minimum, this is not maximum. Any employer that has the capacity can pay as much as you want, but no Nigerian worker will offer services and be paid anything less than N70,000 from today. That is the implication of this Act.

    “It applies all over the nation and we are excited that this is happening at a time like this, through President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a man who cares for the Nigerian workers and you see what we are doing in the National Assembly, when it came the entirety of the National Assembly moved and passed the bill in one day out of excitement, we felt that this was not something we could delay. So I think the workers are happy”, he said.

    Same Monday President Tinubu directed a new crude oil sale model to local refineries, including the expansive Dangote Refineries. This new system mandates the national oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), to begin the sale crude oil to Dangote and others, with the new deal transacted in the local currency, the Naira. Of course, the new deal is not without a targeted benefit for the local economy and the local investor. Note that the directive was meant to be operational with immediate effect.

    It was the duty of the nation’s number one tax chief, Zacch Adedeji, who holds the offices of Special Adviser to the President on Revenue and Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). He joined other senior government officials to address journalists at the State House, Abuja, breaking the news of the presidential directive. 

    “Today, at the Federal Executive Council, there was a memo by Mr. President, which is to promote the sale of crude oil within local refineries and Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to deal in our local currency. The attitude of Mr. President is thinking outside the box to solve Nigeria’s problem and actually to localised the solutions to Nigeria’s problem.

    “He has approved through the Council that effective immediately, that NNPC get engaged with local refineries and we are starting that with Dangote Refinery. That the sales of crude oil to Dangote Refinery be denominated in Naria and also the sales of byproducts from Dangote Refinery to distributors also be conducted in naira. What does it mean to our economy? One, the pressure on foreign exchange will be reduced.

    “With this approval today through FEC, led by Mr. President, this has reduced by minimum of 90% because what we have today, will mean transaction is now done in our local currency, not only with Dangote Refinery, but to all local refineries for all our local consumptions and this will actually stabilise the pump price.

    “This will also make economic predictability a reality because we will no longer rely on the fluctuations that happen in FOREX. This is an innovation to solving our problems as a country today. Just to be specific, I’ll just read parts of the benefits. Number one, which is major, is the reduction in foreign exchange pressure, as the existing process that we have today utilises $660 million per month, totally $7.92 billion annually.

    Read Also: Law compels all employers to pay N70,000 minimum wage

    “With the new approval that we have, this will reduce to maximum of $50 million per month which is annnualised to be only $600 million. This is total reduction of 94% and saving us $7.32 billion. This will also reduce finance costs, which today stands at $79 million, when you consider opening letter of credit between those local refineries and what happens”, Adedeji disclosed to journalists.

    This policy step, according to the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, who tries constantly to give expert views to the policies of the administration, said the new window for local economic interaction between NNPCL and local refinery will make boost the energy sector, as well as make the realization of industrialization easy.

    It was still within the that he received the representatives of the banking sector, including the Chairman of the United Bank for Africa, Tony Elumelu; and the Group Chief Executive Officer of the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) who approached him for clarifications on the newly impose Windfall Levy.

    The new week will come with its own excitement, but we need to stay on the #EndBadGovernance in the this week, let us see how it pans out.

  • Protest is not the problem for Tinubu, but it’s impact on ordinary people 

    Protest is not the problem for Tinubu, but it’s impact on ordinary people 

    It was another very packed week for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He opened the week last Sunday in Ghana where he attended 6th Mid-Year Coordination Meeting of the African Union (UN) and gave an update on the achievements and challenges of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which he is second term Chairman over, having been re-elected on July 7 at the 65th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS in Abuja.

    Returning to Abuja that evening, he must have decided it was time to deal with a social irritation that has in the last few days been threatening the peace and the very essence of the rather painful, but needful, sacrifices that Nigerians have been making since his administration injected some socioeconomic reforms into the Nigerian system. The major discuss within and around Nigeria, in the last few weeks, has been all about a budding protest the organisers have coined #EndBadGovernaceInNigeria, has been dominating the airwaves.

    You will be able to understand the kind of feeling and atmosphere most Nigerians, across the classes, are currently living with only if you were in Nigeria or catching up with news from Nigeria in October 2020. It was a season of dread, which claimed lives (especially law enforcement agents), destroyed multibillion naira private and public investments (material and non-material), and has left many livelihoods prostrating, never to find their feet again.

    Nigeria has experienced its share of history’s ups and downs, seasons of public unrest and restlessness, to which regions of the country have lost some of their finest. The Nigerian Civil War (July 1967 to January 1970) was one. Though the #EndSARS protest of October 2020 was nothing compared the Civil War, it came along with a realisation and self-awareness that nobody had in the ’60s and ’70s. That seeming ignorance could also be permitted because the world in which the Nigerian Civil War happened, as advanced as it was for some countries, never had the sort of technological advancement as today’s world lives with. If there was internet then, which I very much cannot ascertain right now, it had not espoused artificial intelligence (AI) and high-calibre weapons were not this accessible.

    So those who executed the #EndSARS protest had a massive technological edge over those who were in charge in the Civil War era or any other public crisis season. Maybe I should note that some analysts have concluded that the about-to-burst protest and the #EndSARS protest might be coming from the same prompters. As the narration goes, let’s say by those who understand social behaviours, this is the third metamorphosis of the spirit that is currently threatening to light the nation up and take everybody back to ground zero. How this happens to be the third manifestation of ‘a destructive monster’ may come up at some other time, in another edition, but just know that #EndBadGovernaceInNigeria and #EndSARS flow from same source, just an evil spirit manifesting differently.

    All the while the arrowheads and sponsors of the swelling protest have been spreading the dread, threatening all sorts, as if it was not meant to be a people’s march, rather a march against the people, the President has been silent and watching which form it wants to take, waiting to really identify what it really is. Though people within and around the government have been appealing and calling for calm, more time and reason, the President was bidding his time, measuring where to come in.

    Although he might have been meeting and reasoning with officials of the government who should have one role or the other to play in managing the situation, like he was believed to have held the meeting with security, intelligence and security chiefs on Friday, July 19, for reasons around the planned strike.

    However, the first time anything would be heard from him relating to the protest was after his meeting with the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris on Tuesday. Idris came out telling journalists, among other reasons for their meeting, Tinubu had told him to tell Nigerians that he already heard their calls and feeling their pains and he was not just folding his arms, but doing something about the hunger and general suffering they complain about.

    He appealed to those planning the protest to exercise a bit more patience with his administration, call their intentions off and allow him focus on delivering the fruits of the current national sacrifice.

    “Mr. President has asked me to again inform Nigerians that he listens to them, especially the young people that are trying to protest, Mr. President is listening to them, he takes what they say seriously and he is working assiduously to ensure that this country is good, not just for today, but also for the future. The issue of the planned protest, Mr. President does not see any need for that, he’s asked them to shelve that plan and he’s asked them to await government’s response to all their pleas. He has listened to them, like I said, and a lot is happening”, was the message Idris delivered from the President.

    Read Also: Election losers want to overthrow government through protest, says Wike

    Right from that Tuesday, the focus of national discuss shifted to the planned strike. Messages and calls for suspension or outright cancelling of the idea started coming from all parts of the country, passed by various stakeholder-groups and individual. At least, not less than four of such calls and appeals went out from the confines of the State House or the government as a whole.

    For instance on Wednesday, after a meeting of members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), convened by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, the federal government called on the planners to remain calm and allow both the President and the government deliver on relieving the populace of the prevailing hardship.

    The call for calm and rejection of the idea of imposing a protest on the nation when the people’s emotions are fluid became louder after the meeting of members of the FEC, which held in the SGF’s office. Much later on Wednesday, the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), who doubles as the Chairman of the Southeast Governors’ Forum, Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, said the Southeast governors are opposed to the protest, especially as the organizers have not adequately tabled their grievances and have failed to engage with government over their reason.

    The chorus against the protest only peaked higher in pitch as the hours passed. On that same Wednesday the former spokesman of the Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign in the 2023 run, Daniel Bwala, who had become identified with the Bola Tinubu Presidency for his constant defense of the administration over time, also came in to see the President and used the opportunity to lend his voice against the planned protest, noting the obvious threats it poses. He even said he would counsel his former boss, Abubakar, against his position endorsing the plan, noting all indications point to a looming violent outing.

    Thursday was choking with more solidarity visits on the President over the looming protest. It started with a complete roll call of PGF members at the Villa. Although they did not speak to journalists afterwards, their participation in subsequent meetings from different groups on the President spoke volumes of their position on the matter and their solidarity with Tinubu.

    After the APC governors, the traditional rulers from all parts of the country made their call, then the Ulamas from various Islamic groups. It was much the same message from them all. They are the groups that deal directly with the peoples of the country at different levels; the governors are the second line of contact before the federal government, while the traditional rulers are regarded as the first line of contact because they oversee the communities. The Ulamas are Islamic religious leaders, whose influence in the public cannot be passed over. They all called for caution, appealing for some level of patriotism and the need to be patient with the government.

    He did not fail to take advantage of the opportunities to express his view of the protest and those plotting it, including their assumed intentions. On Thursday alone, he spoke about it on three occasions. The first time was when he received Letters of Credence from new envoys from three countries, among whom was the ne American Ambassador to Nigeria, Richard Mills Jr. In his conversation with the American Ambassador, Tinubu touched on one of the excuses of the advocates of the protest, who are always quick to recall that he himself called for protest in the past.

    “During the military era, we made our voices heard against dictatorship, and I was part of the group that engaged in peaceful protests without resorting to the destruction of property. We have worked hard to ensure 25 years of unbroken democracy and I will continue to maintain this democracy. In as much as we believe that demonstrations are part of democracy, we will never encourage any protests that lead to the destruction of lives and property”, was his response to those who have tried to equate his passive resistance to military dictatorship and non-violent protest against bad governance to an obvious and deliberate plot against democracy.

    During his meeting with the Ulamas, President Tinubu sent a message to the impressionable, who seem to be willing to jump on every bandwagon without scrutinizing intentions. Warning against those calling people to come out to protest, using the veil of the internet to hide their intents and whereabouts, he said the sponsors of protests place their selfish ambitions above the national interest, noting that protests, fuelled by anger and hate, could degenerate into violence and set the country backwards.

    “The sponsors of protests do not love our country. They have no love for the nation. They do not understand citizenship. They have alternative passports. They are in different parts of the world holding meetings virtually. We do not want to turn Nigeria into Sudan. We are talking about hunger, not burials. We have to be careful. We should be careful with premature politics; politics of hate, and anger. The internet has made it possible to hold meetings in artificial settings. They hold meetings and sponsor anger”, he said           

    He also found the occasion to express his concern about the kind of plot being schemed. When he received the traditional rulers, he made it clear he does not fear genuine protest, he has no such aversion against protests, not when he has led protests in the past, albeit constructively, saying “we are not afraid of protests. Our concern is the ordinary people, and the damages that will be done. Till today, I cannot forget the brand new 60 and 100 seater buses, down there in Lagos that were burnt down, and we are now complaining of transportation”.

    As challenging as it was, the President did not let governance suffer last week, he ensured other areas requiring services received required attention. For instance, on Monday he appointed Professor John Oladapo Obafunwa as the new Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR). On Wednesday, he received Senator Pius Anyim, who just crossed over to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Also on Wednesday, he signed the North-West Development Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2024, and the South-East Development Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2023 into law.

    On Friday, he received the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nation (UN), Amina Mohammed, who visited with updates on the UN’s efforts at restoring normalcy in some African countries that are currently facing challenges. Same Friday, he approved the establishment of the Sector-wide Coordinating Office-Programme Management Unit (SCO-PMU), appointing Dr. Muntaqa Umar Sadiq as National Coordinator.

    This week should unveil more from the quarters of the organizers of the protest, we will see how it pans out, plus other events to our national advantage. We just have to wait to see what the week brings.

  • Tinubu’s Class Act: Achieving Labour’s Journey to N70,000 Minimum Wage

    Tinubu’s Class Act: Achieving Labour’s Journey to N70,000 Minimum Wage

    Last week could not have ended any better for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it was like his mojo had all the supernatural elements cooperating, achieving closure on multiple fronts. We might not know about everything that happened for him during the week, but we definitely could not have missed the two most celebrated events of the week.

    In one week, he safely set an idea he has always thought of institutionalising in Nigeria sailing; a student loan scheme, known as the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), went live, officially, on Wednesday, July 17. As if that was not enough, he finally, and successfully too, closed the deal on a new national minimum wage, a discuss that has threatened the peace and stability of the country since it became a topic between the Tinubu administration and the organised Labour in the wake of fuel subsidy removal.

    However, by all standards, the agreement on the new national minimum wage, which had remained a thorn in the flesh of the state for the longer part of the current administration and which had sustained dread in the public, trumped all other events for not just President Tinubu and his lieutenants, but for all Nigerians, most of who had dreaded a failure to achieve concord through the negotiations and ‘discussions’.

    The long-drawn process to a new minimum wage ended on Thursday at the end of a twin-meeting (started on Thursday July 11 and closed next Thursday, July 18) at the State House, Abuja. At the end of the meeting this week, both government and the organised Labour briefed journalists, announcing that they both had agreed to a N70,000 minimum wage for the Nigerian worker. While taking turns to talk, the journalists they were addressing could see the change in moods from what it was a week before. For a reason, you could see the relief in the faces and composure of even the Labour leaders, who have been the ones to mount the sandbags all along.

    Between N30,000 and N70,000 there was a journey, a journey that saw threats of nationwide strike and an actual nationwide, a journey that saw the constitution of an elaborate 37-man committee, which went through proper negotiations, negotiations that broke down and picked up again. The Bukar Goni-Aji-led Tripartite Committee on New National Minimum Wage, with representatives from the federal and state governments, the organised private sector (OPS) and the organised Labour, did its task and submitted its proposals to the President.

    All along its negotiations, the committee was almost a bazaar with the employers’ side doing a real life haggling with the representatives of the employees. While the negotiations lasted, the employers’ side (federal/sub-national governments/OPS) offered varying amounts, starting with N48,000 to N54,000 to N57,000 to N60,000 to N62,000 and finally to the agreed N70,000. On the side of the workers’ representatives, negotiations started with a demand for ₦615,000 then lowered to N500,000 to N497,000 to N250,000 and finally agreed to N70,000.

    There were those who had concluded that had the meeting with the President failed to achieve an understanding, there would have been no imagining the hit that the economy and the livelihoods of the ordinary Nigerians, who ought to be the initial beneficiaries of the struggle, would have taken. As is the style of Labour anywhere in the world, they already had charged the atmosphere up with threats of strike.

    Read Also: Nigeria youth leaders hail Tinubu over minimum wage

    Even without the threats, people already knew there are elements within the Labour ranks who can only be characterized as anarchist in leaning, such who would have been praying for a wrong move from the government’s side, so there will be a pretext for shutting the economy down, just like they shut the national grid down on June 3, during a strike, in an attempt to enforce total compliance to the industrial strike.

    Like many other compatriots who watched how the journey of this last salaries negotiation went, I initially wondered how President Tinubu maneuvered the talks to get N250,000 to come settle down at N70,000. After studying his appeal and his target in negotiation, I concluded that we have a class act as President. He always seems to know what appeals to whoever he is reaching out to. I have always known it, especially from the process leading to him winning the All Progressives Congress’ (APC) presidential ticket, last Thursday sealed that view of him for me.

    In this case, he got the Labour leaders to see the situation, right from the onset, from his standpoint by appealing to their kinder nature, so much that they had to agree that it is better to settle for what is realistic than sticking to a gun that is certain to backfire. Like he told them the previous Thursday, his solidarity and genuine sympathy is with the working Nigerian and it is within their due to be waged handsomely, yet realistically. His consistency in his plea, and how it rings true to all the realities in the immediate environment across the country, actually achieved the almost elusive agreement.

    The deal breaker for Labour was a new idea President Tinubu thought up. Okay, instead of us to press ourselves to death, reaching for what is obviously not reachable at the moment, why not adjust our timetable to a more convenient timetable (instead of setting minimum wage review timetable to a whole long shot of five years, why not a three year review cycle?). He threw in the first compromise card and the Labour responded in like tone

    “I have heard all your presentations. You came here with the intention to get something on behalf of your members. It has been tough globally and if you review my track record, I have never been found wanting in ameliorating the problems of workers. I belong to the people and to all of you in leadership. Without you, this job is not interesting. You challenged the thinking faculty of leadership, and we have reviewed the position. I have consulted widely, and when the tripartite committee submitted their reports, I reviewed them again and started to think and rethink.

    “Last week, I brought the workload to you because we have a timeline. We have a problem, and we recognize that you have a problem too. We are in the same economy. We are in the same country. We may have different rooms, different addresses, and different houses; we are just members of one family that must care for each other. We must look at the parameters of things. Here, I have a speed limit, and I must pay attention to traffic warnings; slippery when wet, curved roads, and be careful not to have an accident. That is why I went as far as having this meeting today.

    “We are driving this economy together. Let us look at the tenure of review. Let us agree on that, and affirm three years. Two years is too short. We affirm three years. We will review. I am going to move from the tripartite committee. I am going to edge a little bit forward, looking at the review that we have done. Yes, no one in the federal establishment should earn less than N70,000. So, we are going to benchmark at N70,000”, the President said.

    I must also point my utmost respect for the leaders of the organised Labour out. Comrade Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Comrade Festus Usifo (who look seems more like that of a pastor to me), President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) were really matured in their final reading of the whole situation. They could have gone for broke, they have the number, but they had to consider the certain impact of going reckless with naked power, on the people. Giving a brief of the reason for Labour’s decision to settle for President Tinubu’s proposal of N70,000, the NLC President, Ajaero said “accepting N70,000 was the best way to make sure that we save Nigerians from further hardship.

    “At the last meeting, the President brought a proposal that ‘I will give you guys N250,000, if you allow me to equally increase the pump price of petroleum products’ and we said no, that we need to go and consult. Today, we went there to tell him ‘no’ and that the labour movement can make sacrifices without allowing Nigerians to suffer further on the increase of pump price of petroleum products”, the Labour leader said.

    Before that victory for the Nigerian worker and the triumph of the President’s negotiating skill on Thursday, there was Wednesday, the day he performed the presidential launch of the NELFUND and handed out symbolic student loans to institutions and individual student beneficiaries. Before the historic event of the NELFUND Presidential launch, there was the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, after which some of the efforts of the President to take comfort to Nigerians were disclosed, because they featured in Council. For instance, the decision to introduce an amendment to the 2024 Budget, for the sake of some exigencies, including the new minimum wage; the distribution of 740 trucks of rice to all the states of the federation, among others issues came out.

    It was also the birth week of one of his close associates, Professor Olatunji Dare and he did not miss the opportunity to celebrate the renowned scholar/journalist. He also held a security meeting with heads of security outfits on Friday, just before leaving for Ghana yesterday for the African Union (AU) Sixth Mid-Year meeting. He also met with a delegation from oil giant, ENI, led by the Chief Executive Officer Claudio Descalzi, and the management of the Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), led by its Chairman, Alexey Arnautov, in separate meetings at the Villa.

    He is starting the week in Ghana, on behalf of Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which he chairs, but that will not deplete his activities. We will have to wait to see what the week brings. Hang on.

  • A stop at the Supreme Court on the way to achieving a cause

    A stop at the Supreme Court on the way to achieving a cause

    It was an exciting week of a medley of activities, right from the first day of the week to the very end of it. It was in the week that the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), decided to re-elect our President as its Chairman after completing the his initial one year term in the saddle of the very critical regional governing body. It was also the week during which a major structural adjustment was made to the way Nigeria runs; the Supreme Court wrest the financial control of the third tier of governance from the governors. When history will be remembering the Presidency of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, this will count for him as a major win for true democracy and part of a piecemeal restructuring of Nigeria.

    The week started out on Sunday with the 65th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the ECOWAS at the State House, Abuja. Besides some other decisions taken for the stability of the region, presidents of member-nations decided to keep President Tinubu in office for another year as their Chairman. Without claiming to know what other reasons informed the decision, although some other reasons have been adduced by those who understand real international politics, there are some of us who strongly believe he was asked to stay back as Chairman because they were satisfied with his leadership in the last one year. No system replaces an effective Managing Director.

    Right from the moment he was re-elected, President Tinubu swung into action by beefing up the body’s mission to win back member-states that broke away from the regional bloc and formed a splinter organisation, the Alliance of Sahel States (ASS). “I have appointed the President of Senegal, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, to please become our Special Envoy to Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger Republic, along with the President of Togo, Faure Gnassingbé, to do around- the-clock work with our brothers in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger Republic, and to coordinate with me and the ECOWAS Commission, where necessary.

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    “I have accepted to continue the service to the great members and the great minds that are committed to democratic values and our journey in the region. I will continue to serve our interest and build on democratic values and the structure that we inherited. Thank you very much”, the President said.

    The week had so much to talk from, very significant events that will affect the life of the ordinary Nigerian for a very long time, if institutionalised and not disrupted with petty politics. The star events that came across as most striking will be the victory won for local council administration by the federal government and the step taken towards achieving an expansion and better administration of the livestock branch of the agriculture sector, which among other things seeks to expand and mechanise the sub-sector, thereby turning it to another revenue generating source for the national economy and sort out the age-long farmer-herder conflict.

    On Thursday, July 11, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark decision, which ’emancipated’ the local government system from the financial control of the state governments. This decision of the Supreme Court became an instant sensation because it was long in coming; virtually everyone had a reaction, mostly lauding the apex court for bringing clarity to the matter, which has been contested for years. The decision reached on Thursday was as a result of a matter filed by the Tinubu administration at the Supreme Court against the 36 states of the federation on May 26 this year. It sought the enforcement of the full autonomy of the local governments in the country.

    Those who have been consistent in following the President will remember his focus has always been getting governance closer to the smaller units of society because these are where the people live their lives; home units to wards to councils to states before the federal. Each time he has had to speak on ensuring the people feel the effect of governance, he always takes it back to the local government system. One of such occasions in recent times was when he met with the leadership of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) at the State House, Abuja. On Friday, May 31 of this year, the ACF, led to the Villa by its Chairman of Board of Trustees, Bashir Dalhatu, received a message for the governors.

    “We are running a constitutional democracy. I will appeal to you to summon the governors. I am doing my very best to enhance the revenue base of the country. They must equally be sympathetic, and they must urgently consider the needs of the local people. People reside in the local communities, that is where they work, farm, and live. If the local governments are not effective in delivering services; as leaders, we must not hang on to the numbers. We have 774 local government areas, but are they truly effective? Do they solve problems for Nigerians? Do they coordinate development programming with the state and federal governments?

    “Who is being held accountable for the performance of the 774 local governments? Maybe we should look at recalibrating. What was good four years ago may not be good today. When we want the votes, we go to the locals; when we get the votes, we move to aSo when the Supreme Court delivered its decision in favour of his ’cause’ on Thursday, it must have been one of the proudest moments of his life; winning victory in favour of a just cause for the helpless, the man living with his family in the remotest parts of the country.

    “The Renewed Hope Agenda is about the people of this country, at all levels, irrespective of faith, tribe, gender, political affiliation, or any other artificial line they say exists between us. This country belongs to all of us. By virtue of this judgement, our people – especially the poor – will be able to hold their local leaders to account for their actions and inactions. What is sent to local government accounts will be known, and services must now be provided without excuses. 

    “My administration instituted this suit because of our unwavering belief that our people must have relief and today’s judgement will ensure that it will be only those local officials elected by the people that will control the resources of the people. This judgement stands as a resounding affirmation that we can use legitimate means of redress to restructure our country and restructure our economy to make Nigeria a better place to live in and a fairer society for all of our people”, President Tinubu stated.

    Before the delightful news from the Supreme Court, Tuesday saw him taking a step towards achieving a better organized agriculture sector. You will remember one of the priorities of his administration is food security and upgrading the sector to the level of a substantial income earner for the economy. It was Tuesday he inaugurated the Renewed Hope Livestock Reform Implementation Committee and it was during the inauguration he dropped a hint on the plan to create a Federal Ministry of Livestock Development. Among other reasons, the step is targeting the enhancement of protein production, increase employment opportunities and government revenue.

    “We’ve solved the problem, we have identified the models for livestock management, it is done in other countries, in other climes successfully promoted. It created great economy and empowerment for ordinary people. Traditional livestock system must be reformed to add significant and sustainable value to Nigeria’s social economic growth and development with all measures that is available to us. When you have great opportunity as this, why should Nigeria continue in conflict with the caliber of the people that is here? This presents a unique opportunity also to delineate and establish a separate ministry called the Ministry of Livestock Development. We will develop the economy, give people the opportunity to excel”, he said.

    Most important target, it was gathered, is to once and for all put an end to the vicious farmer-herder conflict, which has claimed thousands of lives in different parts of the country and which seemed to have given birth to some other multi-level forms of criminal activities.

    Tuesday evening was all for the President’s late mother, Alhaja Abubatu Mogaji, the Iya’loja of Lagos, who died eleven years ago. A stage play, produced by Ola Awakan, a multiple award-winning broadcast journalist with TVC, directed by Ahmed Yerima, Abibatu Mogaji: The Play, was the spice needed to elicit the President’s emotional part. He made a very heart-touching recall of what it felt like for him having his mother and the sacrifices she made to make the person known as Bola Ahmed Tinubu. How her breast was his first restaurant, her lap, his first toilet and her back, his first bed. It was the perfect moment to pledge a special attention for the development of arts and culture in Nigeria.

    Wednesday was for the seventh Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting and it saw the clearing of some memoranda, including the one for the separation of the university system from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) platform, as previously approved. It also granted the ratification of the establishment of the National University of Science and Technology in Abuja, a Pan African Institute dedicated to teaching African scientists and technologists.

    On Thursday, besides the news of the Supreme Court victory, he also met with leaders of the organised Labour at the State House to discuss around the impending national minimum wage that has been on the negotiation table for a while. The meeting, which was described as a “father-to-children” discussion, was adjourned till this week for further discussion.

    The events of the last week were more than could have fitted into this space, but you can trust the other regular features like birthdays and other such things still found media space. Not here though, at least not on this edition. We wait to see what this week holds.

  • Inflation: Tinubu’s N2 trillion Economic Stabilization Programme to the rescue

    Inflation: Tinubu’s N2 trillion Economic Stabilization Programme to the rescue

    Business mogul and the acclaimed richest African alive, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, was a particularly conspicuous figure around power this last week. Starting with his speaking-truth-to-power outing at a three-day National Manufacturing Policy Summit, held at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja, jointly organized by the federal government and the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN), where he made a strong statement on the difficulties facing Nigeria’s industrialization attempts and the fate of the local investor.

    In his keynote address, he highlighted the way government’s actions and inactions are affecting the industrial sector, sounding steps he expects government to take to free up the investment atmosphere for the all investors, especially the local ones. The part of his comment that drew everyone’s attention to the message was the warning against the suffocating banking interest rate, which he observed will never allow the manufacturing sector to play its roles in industrialization of the nation and job-creation, which ultimately will make economic growth and development almost a chimera.

    “Import dependence is equivalent to importing poverty and exporting jobs. No power, no growth, no prosperity. Similarly, no affordable financing, no growth, no prosperity. There is no industrialization without protection. Ignoring these facts is what gives rise to insecurity, banditry, kidnapping and abject poverty”, the experienced industrialist warned. He rounded his speech off by saying “nobody can create jobs with an interest rate of 30%. No growth will happen”.

    Though Dangote is really not a stranger to newspaper front pages, this particular outing sealed the lead of most national dailies the following day. Not only was he the topic for newspapers and their television reviewers, his message resonated with virtually all social classes of Nigeria, he was talking about what touches on all; job opportunities, purchasing power, a boisterous, self-sustaining economy.

    Dangote’s message, which he made at the door-step of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, seemed to preempt President Bola Tinubu’s next stop in his series of stakeholder engagements targeted at reviving the economy because last week was actually reserved for a group of stakeholders he selected for the purpose of serving as his deck officers in the journey to salvaging the Nigerian economy. The President of the Dangote Industries Limited was going to be part of the group the President will be facing.

    Like when he met governors and key figures in his economic team during the National Economic Council (NEC) the upper week, to raise serious concerns about the economy, especially the inflations Nigerians are dealing with, the last week was for the Presidential Economic Coordination Council (PECC), a group of major players, drawn from different sectors of society and the economy. On Thursday, he started out with inaugurating the PECC, which he unveiled late March this year, then threw his propositions to them.

    The 31-member Council, which he is chairman over, is constituted of elements from the federal government, the sub-national governments, the National Assembly, as well as the private sector. Their task, like indicated earlier, would be to draw and pull along with the President in the task of salving the economy. He ensured to remove that psychological barrier that might want to fence members of this very critical initiative out, like they thinking all the responsibilities are for government. He said no, “it’s just me, we’re all in this together”. He came clean, told them that a lot will depend on them as the administration attempts steps that should reverse the current economic challenges facing the nation

    “I am ready to listen to you in all… You have seen us from close quarters, but we are one. We feel the market pinches differently, the price of food stuff and all of that. I can give instructions as the President from my office, but I believe so much, deeply, in the organised private sector. It is Nigeria that is calling, not a Bola Tinubu and the hope of the entire nation hangs on you people”, he said.

    His message resonated much with many of the concerns raised on Tuesday buy Dangote, agreeing that a lot is wrong with the system and requiring the urgent attention of all, especially those he has decided to bring along in the task of righting wrongs.

    “We have the challenge of energy security in Nigeria. We need to work together to improve our oil and gas sector, and we must also increase electricity generation and distribution throughout the country. We are determined to do that with your cooperation, collaboration, and recommendations. As a nation, it is so shameful that we are still generating 4.5GW of electricity. We must increase our oil production to two (2) million barrels per day within the next few months and we are determined to remove all entry barriers to investments in the energy sector while enhancing competitiveness”, the President stated.

    Like a man with methods, he did not just inaugurate, pep-talk and disperse the meeting, he issued the first task, just like he presented the National Construction and Household Support Programme to the governors at the NEC the upper week. After the matter-of-fact discussion, he went on to announce a N2 trillion Economic Stabilization Programme, a four component programme, which will run concurrently with the National Construction and Household Support Programme, to stabilize the economy, enhance job creation, and foster economic security.

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    The N2 trillion package breaks down into N350 billion funding for Health and Social Welfare; N500 billion funding for Agriculture and Food Security; N500 billion for the Energy and Power sector and general business support of about N650 billion, According to the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun.

    The component number one is Energy Security. The Energy Security initiative, which includes power, oil and gas, aims to increase on-grid electricity to be delivered to homes and businesses from about 4.5 gigawatts to 6 gigawatts in six months. It will also see to increase oil production to 2 million barrels per day within the next 12 months and remove barriers to entry for investments into the sector to enhance competitiveness.      

    The second component is Agriculture and Food Security. Under this plan, the aim is to increase staple crops grown by small-holder farmers from 127 million MT in 2023 to 135 million MT this year. It will also target bolstering production by partnering larger-scale commercial farmers and support qualified farmers with satellite imagery for land use planning, crop rotation, and monitoring of agricultural expansion.

    Component number three is Health and Social Welfare. In the health and social welfare sector, the federal government will make essential medicines available at lower cost for 80-90 million Nigerians. It will also expand healthcare insurance coverage for 1 million vulnerable people via a Vulnerable Group Fund in collaboration with state governments, redeploy 20,000 healthcare workers to provide services to 10-12 million patients in areas where they are most urgently needed as well as power up 4,800 primary healthcare centres (PHCs), second tier, and third tier hospitals, using renewable energy sources.

    The fourth component are the Fiscal Measures. Some of the interventions are to improve access to finance for the housing sector, MSMEs, and the manufacturing sector. Some of those to benefit from the fiscal measures are youth-owned enterprises, it will also provide support for new and existing youth-owned enterprises across all 36 states of the Federation, creating 7,400 MSMEs within the next 6-12 months. There is also the MSME support in this component, supported with a six hundred and fifty billion naira (N650 billion) facility to provide lower-cost short-term facilities to youth-owned businesses, manufacturers and MSMEs across various industries; food processing, pharmaceutical, agriculture, and wholesale and retail trade. This financing will be based on their current and future receivables, company rating, and market demand for products. This component has so much plans, cutting across various sectors.

    Aside from the inauguration of the PECC and the economic recovery task he gave it, President Tinubu had other equally important engagements and activities. For stance, he made some appointments into some very critical positions. On Tuesday, he appointed a ten-man board for the Family Homes Fund Limited (FHFL) and on Wednesday appointed a board for the Consumer Credit Corporation (CREDICORP).

    It was also a very solemn week for the State House Press Corps (SHPC), having lost one of its most senior and long serving correspondents, Alhaji Kabir Yusuf of Radio France International, the Hausa Service, who died in Kano after returning from Saudi Arabia earlier in the week. The President was on record as one of the first to commiserate with the Corps and the family of the deceased.

    On Friday, he rejoiced by the newly elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK), Sir Kier Starmer and went on to grant audiences to various categories of people, from ministers and heads of agencies who had files needing his attention, to political guests, like the Edo team, which visited to update him on the ongoing governorship campaigns in their state.

    It was a very loaded week for the President, although many of his activities were not out in the public, he had them anyways. This week looks like might also be having much for the President to attend to, especially as he is starting with the 65th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government. We just need to wait to see what the week looks like.

  • Tinubu’s statesmanlike call to govs at NEC: Help save Nigeria

    Tinubu’s statesmanlike call to govs at NEC: Help save Nigeria

    Describing Nigeria in its current state will not be difficult for very skilful wordsmiths, but for those not looking for anything out of the ordinary, beleaguered should suffice. Looking around you and taking all the miry circumstances into consideration, Nigeria, not just the people in it, feels the heat coming from all the unease. Now imagine the state of mind of the man set at the centre, charged with the responsibility of steering the wheel of state at the moment. It should be easy for you to think up how he fares managing it all.

    President Bola Tinubu has indeed braved the heat with dignity and candour all along; while trying his utmost best, sacrificing both his natural and, sometimes, material resources to fulfil his campaign promises and all that God has laid in his mind to do for Nigeria, genuinely and honestly, for some reasons, the feedback from those he is staking it all for have not really been as positive as, even among those demanding the impracticable from him, would have expected, speaking candidly now.

    In times past in others climes, what President Tinubu is focused on achieving with Nigeria now, talking about his various reforms, are the same sort of things that those world leaders, whom histories have virtually deified, did back then that have elevated them as the best from humanity. British Winston Churchill, American Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, Chinese Mao Zedong, Russian Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, the World War 2 German leaders and many others from one wing of the globe to the other, leaders who saw their people heading the wrong direction and decided to brave the odds to force a redirection of progress, took steps similar to what our President is doing now; bring reforms that should alter a negative trajectory.

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    It was most certain that while those great men were re-engineering their nations, they faced similar resistances and opposition as Tinubu is facing now. However, they have become icons that are referenced for socioeconomic re-engineering. In the same manner, by the time the Nigerian President is done with this task of restoring the country to its pride of place among the comity of nations, history would have certainly reserved a kind space for him.

    That retrospect became necessary because of a significant event that occurred in the week that just ended. The Chief of Staff to the President, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, made a revelation on Wednesday when he led a team of the President’s representatives to pay condolence visit on Vice President Kashim Shettima in Kano. Shettima was in Kano, mourning his mother-in-law, Hajiya Maryam Albishir, and while delivering the President’s message, Gbajabiamila revealed a plan by his boss to make an unusual appearance at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting that had been scheduled for the next day at the Villa in Abuja.

    Although the NEC is a major interface between the federal and the sub-national governments, it is statutorily the Vice President’s arena, he is the chairman of the Council. However for one reason or the other, Honourable Gbajabiamila, who is also statutorily in charge of the President’s itinerary, revealed Mr President would be a visitor to the meeting. So it made sense for many who heard about it, especially journalists, that Tinubu, who is known for making unique manoeuvres when he intends to break the ice in difficult situations, was visiting the NEC to get one or some of the challenges currently facing the nation out of the way. The most likely issue was guessed to be the new minimum wage discuss.

    The NEC commenced at about noon with most of the governors in attendance, Vice President Shettima took the chairman’s seat and started executing the business of the day. President Tinubu was nowhere within or around the Council Chambers where the meeting was holding. Then journalists who had anticipated the President’s presence at the meeting started wondering if what the Chief of Staff said the day before was meant to be a joke or some sort of ‘political statement’.

    However, about an hour or so into the meeting, signals buzzed, announcing the visitor’s approach and immediately he entered the chambers, the atmosphere reportedly changed. True to the expectations, he was there to discuss serious national issues with those regarded as the step-two stakeholders of the federation. To ensure an atmosphere of seriousness, those who needed not be part of the meeting were excused out and the meeting went covert.

    Much of what was discussed between him and the governors still remains ‘classified’, they are serious state matters that can only be accessed by authorised officials. However, the little that managed to sneak to the media through the President’s spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, though there was still that feeling that what sneaked out was only a tip of the iceberg, like someone sarcastically put it when the statement was issued. There was the feeling that the most anticipated issue, the minimum wage matter, was discussed but outcomes were designed to be reserved. Minimum wage discussion or not, the wakeup call to the governors by the President, at least from the tone of what was quoted from what he was reported to have said, was poignant. 

    “Our states must work together to deliver on the critical reforms required of us to meet the needs of our people. Time is humanity’s most precious asset. You can never have enough of it. It is getting late. We are ready and able to support you in the form of the mechanization of your agricultural processes and the provision of high-quality seedlings. We are prepared to provide solar powered irrigation facilities to support our farmers across seasons, but we must now produce. We must produce the food our people eat, and it will require coordination and intentionality between members of the National Economic Council (NEC).

    “There is nothing we are doing that is more important than producing high-quality food for our people to consume, buy, and sell. We create jobs in the production of it. And that is before we generate wealth by exporting the excess. It is not beyond us to achieve this for Nigerians. How much support do you need from me and in what form? I am prepared to provide it. But we must achieve the result. We must deliver on our targets at all levels. Please report back following your consultations and submit to my office within seven days”, President Tinubu said.

    Those were the words of a man on a mission, but who has discovered that his co-travelers, those who ought to pull and till with him, are not interested in the same task with him. Of course the federal government is at the centre, but that arm alone cannot execute all tasks by itself. Yes, Tinubu has introduced reforms and had since been deploying resources, but are the people managing the step two, which are the states, doing their part? Are they allowing the reforms and the resources cascade to the parts, to the smallest units, which are the families?

    There are no federal or state farmers, farmers are just groups, like we have in cooperatives, they are individuals doing either subsistent or mechanized practices and if the federal government needs to effectively impact on farmers, the federating units ought to be part of that process because they are the ones closer to the farmers at their different levels. The President is a practical man, if he says he is committed to doing something, he wants you to see it is done as he promised.

    He came with a plan to re-order Nigeria, which can only be done through hard work from all quarters, when he is not achieving the result he intends, due to the fault of a weak link, he does not just fold his arms expecting a miracle, he takes a step to either strengthen the link or get a new link forged. When he felt like some people in the federal civil service were slowing the pace of progress down, despite all that had been invested, he called the leadership, led by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the Body of Permanent Secretaries, that was on February 22, this year, bore his mind and demanded a change from them. From then on then knew they are being watched.

    Reforms and re-engineering attempts are only successful when the people participate, they will participate when their basic needs are not a concern for them, however, Nigerians are hungry now, not much result will be realized in such state, hence the wakeup call at the NEC.

    For starters, dealing the some of the concerns hurting citizens, right at the meeting, he approved the immediate rollout of the National Construction and Household Support Programme to cover all geo-political zones in the country. The programme is targeted at achieving a couple of goals. Some of the items under the programme include a one-off allocation to states and the Federal Capital Territory of N10 billion for the procurement of buses and CNG uplift programme. Delivery of N50,000 uplift grant each to 100,000 families per state for three (3) months. There is also a provision for Labour unions and civil society organizations and the deployment of N155 billion for the purchase and sale of assorted foodstuff to be distributed across the nation.

    By the way, the week was more than just last Thursday and there were other events that littered the week. For instance, on Monday he received a delegation from Standard Chartered Bank, led by its Group Chief Executive, Bill Winters. He also appointed a new Chief Executive Officer for the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), in the person of Tunji Bello. On Tuesday he presided over one of the most exhaustive FEC meetings, where almost forty memoranda were tended and very far reaching decisions reached. There were, as usual, reasons to rejoice with some Nigerians and well as to mourn with others. He appointed eight new permanent secretaries for the civil service.

    This week will come with its own narration, which we must all wait to see.