Those who know President Tinubu will tell you that his level of commitment to courses he decides to commit to is always absolute. Those who want to be derisive will call him stubborn because once he has identified his path, nothing else can dissuade him. This attribute is what is already playing out in the way he has purposed to run Nigeria. For him, Nigeria he inherited is not a lost case, it is one requiring honest efforts at correcting wrongs of many years and countering those who have lived off our blights and are devoted to keeping us the way we are.
Some of his decisions since he assumed office, are actually confronting, almost war-like, and he seems determined to continue running with this mindset because that is who he is. During the week, he manifested this same trait when reacting to recent security developments. On Wednesday, Jagaban was said to have directed the nation’s security and intelligence chiefs to go out into the various parts of the country, especially those parts where criminal elements seem to have been having free runs, without checks, and there assert the presence of government.
In the last few weeks, cases of abduction have become prevalent in some states, especially Kaduna, Sokoto and Borno states, where large numbers of soft-targets have lost embarrassing number of Nigerian citizens to kidnappers. If an aggregate of about 450 Nigerians were herded away by gun-toting bandits, without any challenge and it is not as though they left the Nigerian borders, what better description would have suited better than embarrassing? Then in all these cases, the motive for kidnapping has been ransom, in ridiculous amounts.
In one instance, in the Gonin-Gora area of Kaduna Metropolis, a band of bandits, which had kidnapped sixteen persons from the community, demanded N40 trillion, eleven Hilux vans and 150 motorcycles, as ransom. N40 trillion, almost N12 trillion above Nigeria’s 2024 Budget, and that was called ransom. Any leader of a country who hears such a joke and does not shake with rage is in need of a critical, all-round check. Funnily, that joke was just one of the various cases of ransom trades, especially in the north.
So when on Wednesday, he was reported to have issued a fresh directive to security agencies to go out and do their job by ending the uncanny reign of terror and defiance in the north. A particular caveat was issued on how the business has to go: As you are freeing all those being illegally held against their wish, also ensure not a dime is paid in ransom.
“We are seeing that the more the security agencies are hitting these targets or criminals, the more they are pushed to also getting some soft targets. But government is not taking any excuses. The President has directed that security agencies must, as a matter of urgency, ensure that these children and all those who have been kidnapped are brought back in safety and also in the process to ensure that not a dime is paid for ransom. So it’s important to underscore that no dime, government is not paying anybody any dime and the government is optimistic that these children and other people that have been abducted will be brought back to their families in safety”, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, who gave the piece of information to journalists at the State House, after the week’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, said.
Idris said Tinubu particularly gave the instruction to security forces during the FEC. He did not say the security handlers presented a memo, just an instruction to them to end the madness immediately. Those who know the man well said he would have given the instruction with a straight face, probably very pissed because he does not usually leave room for lapses and when those working with him are not keeping up with his pace, he is never comfortable.
Although the man with the message did not add if there was a threat of sack, but if he had his way, things like this could have naturally resulted in a change guards. His thought would have naturally been, how have a few criminals managed to beat a nation like Nigeria, with the capacities and resources available us, constantly and getting away with it? He would have instructed a new strategy to end the embarrassment, but the spirit talking through him is the one he has severally described as ‘can-do’, a determination that looks like stubbornness.
He manifested similar spirit again on Friday when he met with the Forum of State Chairmen of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC), telling them about a bunch of saboteurs of the Nigerian dream. Their conversation was around achieving their party’s campaign promises to Nigerians, as the chairmen represent the foot soldiers of the ruling party in the smaller units of the federation. The talk took off from what Nigerians are looking out for from the government, which he, as President, has constantly assured will be realized, but then things seem sort of slow, not because the right steps are not being taken, but because there are elements in the country, whose focus and agenda are asymmetrical to those of the government and the people of Nigeria.
In a matter-of-fact conversation, Jagaban drew the battle line with the saboteurs, calling them out: “as we are fighting corruption, smugglers, and old subsidy beneficiaries, they most certainly will fight back. All those who falsified records and became losers with the subsidy (on petroleum products) removal, they will fight back. But we will defend our people. The treasury belongs to the people, and that sacred trust must not be abused. We need to give hope, and we are giving it to the country and our citizens. We are working hard, day and night, even though some agents of destabilization are present in the polity. Nigerians, with our focused support, shall defeat them”.
There is a focus of the Bola Tinubu administration and that is to rewrite the Nigerian narrative. Achieving that has seemed to drag, but the man will not give in, if not for any other reason, just to prove a point that the few should not defeat the many, that will be against the order of life. But much more, this is a man who has a name and reputation to protect: a strong-willed leader, who ensures to achieve his development goal at all cost, but primarily by sheer tenacity, never pulling back once he has set his mind on achieving something.
Then there was that very significant directive during the week, which once again showed the human, listening side of President Tinubu. Last Wednesday, Mr President ordered the reopening of our borders, land and air, with Niger Republic, and the lifting of other imposed sanctions, as resolved by the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government at its extraordinary summit on February 24, 2024, in Abuja.
The decision, though resolved at the ECOWAS level, was actually another manifestation of his feelings for the ordinary Nigerian and of course humanity at large. There have been concerns about how sanctions affect the ordinary people in the countries. In his opening speech at the extraordinary meeting, his primary concern was how all the actions and activities affect the ordinary people. “It is pertinent that we engage in constructive deliberations to examine the actions taken by these countries and ensure that the citizens are not denied the benefits derived from our regional integration initiatives. In our ensuing discussions, we must put the plight of people, the ordinary citizens, at the centre of our decisions”. He has championed this same course all through the period he has served as Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government.
Meanwhile, it was a really busy week as there were many activities and events coming from his office. Like on Tuesday, besides receiving the Special Envoy of the President of Equatorial Guinea, he met with the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, his deputy and some other ranking leaders of the Senate. That meeting was coming at a very opportune time, considering the crisis brewing at the Senate. Then there was appointment of Dr Dayo Mobereola as Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and in the evening attended the Ramadan Tafsir.
On Wednesday, just before the FEC started, he swore in 17 Commissioners for the National Population Commission (NPC), presided over the FEC that a couple of important memoranda. On Thursday, he made quite a number of appointments, including Director-General for the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Chief Medical Directors for the Federal Medical Centres (FMCs) in Yenagoa and Abuja, approved the conversion of the Federal College of Dental Technology and Therapy, Enugu, into a full-fledge University of Allied Health Sciences, appointed a new Presidential Amnesty Programme Administrator, and many more appointment into Friday.
However, before Thursday closed, the President had the Iftar, which is the Ramadam fast breaking dinner with governor as members of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF). The meeting was another strategy session to plot a better Nigeria with the leaders of the bits and parts, aimed at getting them to join him to solve the Nigerian riddle. He appealed to them to cast politics apart to join him to pursue, for the sake of Nigerians.
The week was so loaded, it could not be entirely unpacked. I look forward to a smarter week.
