By Abdulaziz Abdulaziz
Surfing through my WhatsApp messages two days ago, a message popped in from Umar Dan-Sokoto, a contact based in Kaduna’s Birnin Gwari town. It was a short voice note; thus, despite my aversion to that messaging format, I didn’t hesitate clicking to listen. The voice message, he said, was a response to my interview he had listened to over the radio on the milestones recorded by the Tinubu administration. “But you have forgotten some significant achievements,” he remarked. “Just before this government came in, a measure of maize flour sold for N4,000; now it’s N2,000. At a point a bag of maize sold for up to N100,000. How much is it now?!” He asked rhetorically. But the pleasant answer is one that Dan-Sokoto and other Nigerians who patronise that staple food very much know.
Dan-Sokoto, who had previously narrated how life has changed in the hitherto embattled Birnin Gwari and its environs, further reiterated the continuous successes in stabilising his part of Nigeria. To the names I reeled out of high-profile bandits silenced for good, he added one Dogo Mai-Rasha, who, he said, was notorious around Birnin Gwari but was recently killed in combat somewhere in Niger State. I was jolted by these revelations because they represented genuine testament from down the ladder. It also indicates that no matter what nay-sayers say, ordinary Nigerians follow and count their blessings.
No one denies that we have gone through tough times. But it amounts to dishonesty, and even betrayal of God’s mercies, if we do not acknowledge that we are witnessing a calm after the storms. This administration came at a tough time; but as the saying goes, when it gets tough, the tough get going. And, indeed, unusual moments demand unusual actions.
On arriving on May 29, 2023, President Bola Tinubu wasted no time in grabbing the long-avoided bull by the horns. For decades, everyone tried to side-step the difficult route to our surest path to growth. No one wanted to unsettle the status quo, especially one that had the elite feeding on the national cake and had built for the poor a Potemkin village of sorts; a fool’s paradise.
As I noted elsewhere, President Tinubu showed a clear difference between politics and governance. He had the option to remain politically correct by window-dressing the walking corpse and remaining popular. But as the true leader that he is, he took the commendable decision of doing the right thing for the country, even if it would make him unpopular in the short-term.
It was akin to a choice to fly into a gathering storm, or endlessly wait in uncertainty. He chose the first option. The ride hadn’t been easy. The storm was huge. But, like a well-trained pilot, President Tinubu stayed on the course with absolute trust in the correctitude of his decision and belief in the ability of the steps taken to deliver the plane out of the storms.
The eureka moment is now here. We have turned the corner on most indices, and ordinary Nigerians, who patiently went through the storms, are now beginning to have the full glare of the light at the end of the tunnel. Glory be to God!
When this administration came, what it met was a dry well. In fact, though no one penned a stark note like what former British secretary of Treasury Liam Byrne left for his successor, in 2008 (“I’m afraid, there is no money!”), the fiscal indices showed exactly that. Many states were struggling to pay salaries. Debt servicing had stopped. Our debt-to-GDP ratio was hitting the ceiling. Oil production had dipped to lower than a million barrels. The state was gasping.
But even during the presidential campaign, Tinubu had sensed the situation of the well, and had said he was ready to – and indeed stated that he knew how to – draw water from the dry well. However, for the well to recharge and bring out the needed water, it’s imperative to block leakages and stop wasteful spending. This was what he did.
Now, every now and then, some cynics ask, rather cheekily: where is the subsidy money the government said it has saved? A cursory look reveals so much being done at both the federal and sub-national levels indicative of prosperity. Civil servants in states who used to go months without salaries have forgotten that era. Those who were paid in bits and pieces now get paid in full, despite the new minimum wage implemented. Pensioners no longer stage protests. ASUU had no reason to close the classrooms again.
Meanwhile, this government has waved off the burden of school fees from hundreds of thousands of families. President Tinubu has literally put the entire Nigerian students in tertiary institutions on scholarships. The loan scheme administered by the Nigerian Educational Loan Fund (NELFUND) is so easy to access, and very soft on repayment. By now, over 300,000 Nigerians benefit from it, with tuition fees and pocket allowance being paid. It’s a huge relief to their parents.
Then comes massive investment in infrastructure. In Economies, the idea of investment in public infrastructure serves multiple purposes. First, it serves as a means to pump money into the economy through the productive sector, not fraud-prone subsidies or handouts. Two, it’s meant to generate jobs and take youthful members of the population away from crimes and idleness. Third, and perhaps what everyone sees, is the economic growth such infrastructures eventually spur directly or indirectly. In the aftermath of economic downturns, like the Great Depression, governments put out money on infrastructure projects to drive these benefits.
The Tinubu administration is massively investing in infrastructure to yield all these benefits. Nigeria is today one big construction site with investments in roads, railways, housing, schools and hospitals. Let’s start from the latter.
In the last two years, over 1,000 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) have been rebuilt. At the moment, over 5,000 others are in the works as part of the government’s ambitious plan to revitalise 17,000 PHCs nationwide by 2027. Sixty-one tertiary health institutions and diagnostic centres are undergoing a similar turnaround. The idea is to have truly specialised institutions in different aspects of healthcare delivery that would help cut down our huge medical tourism bill. Besides revamping healthcare, these are jobs and money for the pockets of Nigerians.
Inherited and fresh road projects are going on all over the country, with attendant catalytic impact on growth and development. It’s the same with rail and power projects, including unprecedented investment in renewable energy.
In Education, this government has established more universities and other tertiary institutions than was done in the last decade. Each institution established means hundreds of direct jobs and hundreds more indirect ones. It’s also educational liberation and empowerment for the people.
What the Tinubu administration has done in the past two years is to recalibrate our economy away from flippancy to productivity. It also pulls our national priorities from living a la the stereotypical Abuja big boy who lives above his means and without recourse to the future. A culture of long-term and strategic investment where it matters is now being installed. Productivity–in agri-business, in clean energy, in housing, in pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, in IT start-ups and entertainment–is now being rewarded. Steadily, we’re reaping the fruits of tough, smart decisions. In due course, we’ll all be happy we followed a man who knows the road through the storm into a calm, bright tomorrow.
•Abdulaziz is Senior Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Print Media
