There is this very interesting vibe that President Bola Tinubu seems to infuse into public administration since his assumption of office. Right from the Day-One, the day of his inauguration, when he, with just a proclamation, expelled a problem that seemed to have evolved a life of its own over the years, Jagaban has left no one in doubt that he is not here to fiddle, but to take steps leaders take, in other parts of the world, to make the homeland attractive to the rest of the world to be considered as serious.
Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to say those who came before him fiddled away our time or resources, no, not by any translation of my thoughts. Even if they fiddled in any of the ways the word fiddle translates, this space is not created to voice that and I won’t pretend to know what other leaders before Asiwaju did well or not. Such will be an opinion I will rather keep personal for the time being. I am only trying to emphasise the essence of taking particularly determined and intentional actions, sticking by such actions, taking more steps to see them through to fruition. Our President has been showing capacity as a public administrator.
An example of this intentionality in his ways and running of Nigeria will be the single-mindedness with which he has followed up on the all-important removal of the fuel subsidy. The policy hurts, as a matter of fact, both the people and the government have been impacted. He has consistently acknowledged the fact that he knows how it is hurting the people, especially those in the ‘desperately poor’ category. This has constantly put pressure on the state because from time to time, the pain has pushed the people to mount resistance. Some sections of the ruling class, especially in the traditional class, have even suggested a reversal of the policy to the President.
However, knowing his targeted end in the painful journey out of petrol subsidy, President Tinubu has maintained his focus and stoutly, and consistently too, refused the suggested summersault.
When he met with a delegation from the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA), led by its Chief Executive Officer, on Florizelle Liser, on Thursday at the Villa, Tinubu sent the message out again: “we are right in the middle of a challenging stage of our reforms. We have headwinds, no doubt, but we are not going back. We are challenged, and we believe we will overcome the challenges. I have a can-do attitude that must be translated into a must-do attitude. We have a good team, and we must remain focused to get the goal accomplished”. The message simply translates “I have a beautiful picture in sight and these passing inconveniences are not enough to rob this nation of that beautiful end. There’s no plan to abandon this struggle, not with all that Nigerians have suffered”.
With this sort of vision and focus on the vision, it was not really a surprise when it later emerged that his meeting with the leadership of the Federal Civil Service, including the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the Accountant-General of the Federation, the Auditor-General of the Federation, the Body of Permanent Secretaries, and some Director-Generals of federal agencies, was really not a tea party, as initial information portrayed. Sources inside the meeting said the President was angry at the people who ought to facilitate the execution of policies and programmes of government. He was said to have queried the crème of the civil service over sloppy attitudes towards implementation of policies and programmes. According to a source, the President was said to have wondered why they had been “abysmally slow in carrying out his people-oriented programmes.”
Why would he be angry with them and not even minded if they were the top echelon of the civil service? It is simple. Jagaban is a man on a mission, focused on his mission and taking every risk and step to achieve his target. Here is a link in the chain of the executive, the very core of the chain, now behaving as if it has gone brittle. The President has constantly said he will spare no resource when it comes to ensuring that Nigeria comes out of the woods, meaning he is ready to provide all that is regarded as constituting the enabling environment to achieve his goal.
So after making sure that all that is required is available, then the work men, who ought to use all he has provided to bring about the result, start dragging their feet, as though they are deliberately intent on ensuring his plans and efforts fail, how else would you expect him to react when he sees those seeming to be antithetical in the journey?
Since the harsh effects of the removal of the petrol subsidy and the floating of the Naira at the foreign exchange market started hitting both the economy and Nigerians hard, the President had come up with a number of cushioning programmes, aimed at providing temporary succor to citizens, while massive reorganization of the entire productive system goes on below the surface for the long term solution to the crises we see now. Programmes like provision of a single-digit loan of N1billion to 75 enterprises; N50,000 grant each for 1,300 Nano businesses; N75 billion for 100,000 businesses and startups; and the investment of N100 billion in gas-powered buses for mass transit had been put out to the public as far back as the end of July, but the population is still waiting for much of these to manifest so that the heat they feel can be eased.
“Let us make our children’s dreams come true. Why are we slowing that down? It is not just shameful. It is unacceptable. We made a pledge to bring our people out of poverty. You should not increase their vulnerability. Help Nigerians to get out of these problems, do not compound the tough situation with unacceptable delays”, the President said. Since there will be more of meetings like that of Thursday, Baba should be able to monitor the rate of effectiveness further and if there will be need for re-strategizing, he will know early enough.
Meanwhile, the week was filled with many events and activities of impact. For Instance, on Sunday, while still in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he had attended the 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU), the President met with his Brazilian counterpart, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, discussing issues of mutual economic interest, especially in the areas of agriculture, trade and other areas.
Returning to Nigeria from Addis Ababa on Monday afternoon, he swung back into action, starting with a directive on Tuesday to the management of the State House to immediately settle the electricity bill owed the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), a debt that had almost turned to some sort of embarrassment to the administration. Then on Same Tuesday, he made a couple of new appointments into federal agencies. For instance, he appointed Ms. Hafsat Abubakar Bakari as new Director of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).
On Wednesday, the President met with former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (Rtd), at the Villa. It was actually the first time the elder statesman was visiting the President since he was sworn-in at the end of May last year. It was a time for him to discuss the headaches facing the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which he currently chairs, with one of its founding fathers.
Then he made more appointments; he appointed DCG Kemi Nanna Nandap as Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), and Kahlil Gaga as Executive Director, Corporate services, at the Nigerian Export-Import (NEXIM) Bank.
He also met with the President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Export-Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK), Professor Benedict Oramah, accompanied by a delegation from Kings College Hospital, London (KCH), discussing issues, especially those surrounding the health sector.
Then on Thursday, he continued with making new appointments, making for three agencies under the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy: the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) Limited and Galaxy Backbone Limited. He also appointed Gbenga Alade as Managing Director of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
Those appointments happened late Thursday evening, after he had met with the top echelon of the federal civil service and had received the ECOWAS Judicial Council, which was led to him by its Chairman, who is also the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, at the Villa.
Not much of the President was seen on Friday, but that was assumed to have been as a result of preparation for yesterday’s ECOWAS Summit, held at the Villa. We might not be able to make predictions about what should be expected this week, but one sure thing is it will be exciting because with Jagaban, there is no dull moment.
