Apart from the disturbing headline inflation, seeing the hard times in which most Nigerians are living troubles the heart. Nigerians are not greedy, most of them. The least any government can do is to simply help them keep the wolf away from the door. They are not asking President Tinubu for too much. Yet, they receive the short end of the stick of their commonwealth. They suffer this fate because those who are helming their common patrimony lie to them, more and more. Nigerians truly wish they had leaders who are not good at feigning.
A recent Thisday Newspaper report shows that the economic, social, and educational indices of Nigeria under President Tinubu’s administration do not look good. Hard-working Nigerians are therefore between a rock and a hard place for no cause of theirs. It is no longer news that the sudden subsidy removal has fallen short of the reality of its expectations. Food prices have risen by 35 percent, according to a report.
Nigeria is no longer the largest economy in Africa. Are you surprised? No, it is not. South Africa now takes the biggest chunk of the $3 trillion African economy with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $373.233 billion. Nigeria comes distant 4th after Algeria with only $252.738 billion against the $400 billion it once grew; measured in nominal terms by using the current exchange rate against the actual price of commodities in the market. This, whether the calculation was done per real or nominal GDP, is not a good signal. The sudden removal of the petrol subsidy has caused an unprecedented increase in petrol prices, with pump prices over N1000 per liter, which then led to an increase in transportation and cost of production that business owners quickly passed down to end users.
A survey involving a randomly selected group of Nigerians, carried out by Africa Polling Institute (API), reveals that a startling 84 percent of Nigerians feel deep sadness with the current situation in the country. One would have thought that Tinubu’s coming into office meant that none of the previous presidents or administrations would hold a candle to him. If anyone thought so during the campaigns, at least not anymore. Not with the lamentations of a hemorrhaging economy.
Although Nigerians are in different camps speaking for or against President Tinubu, there is still a narrow path out of the unpleasant situation currently bedeviling Nigerians, who are far from being ensconced into their civic rights as beneficiaries of any altruistic government. Not only has the subsidy removal remained mythical, the upstream contracts and downstream distributions are murky, even with the long-awaited Dangote Refinery coming on stream. Nigerians are “bleeding” and calling for help through protests and other avenues. Most notable is the #EndBadGovernance protest. Now, can President Tinubu help the suffering Nigerians stanch the blood from the wound of subsidy removal? The ticker is that no one is certain.
Nigerians are not asking for their rights any more than they need to be told the truth at all times. Whereas those who speak in support of the President are aware that he is not critically acclaimed, his media outriders are still putting a positive spin. His body language would not let his staunchest critics give him the benefit of time for his economic policies to set, even before angry and hungry Nigerians perish from inflation, which has hit the roofs at over 34.2 percent.
“There is hunger o, there is hunger o”, market women of Lagos cried out to a one-time long convoy of President Tinubu on his way to a Friday prayer in Lagos. In another example of the hunger crisis, a now-trending YouTube Reel shows a man who went to the market the other day to get foodstuff but could not buy a single item because his money could not afford any one item. The man left the market growling in anger. Why? Because his purchasing power has been snatched by inflation. Pathetic!
A country of over 200 million people with a young workforce and the potential of humongous agricultural proceeds is at the low edge of development mainly for lack of truth-telling and conscientiousness—the will to speak what is right—and several other issues, perhaps not the least is the lack of lean government spending. As an archetype of a machine, Nigeria is not working properly as soon as now mostly because its leaders have chosen the pathway of lies, its body parts are not working therefore, leaving the people hungry and poor. Despite the huge agricultural potential, farmers can no longer go to farm without the fear of being attacked by bandits and terrorists.
At the root of Nigeria’s problems—despite being Africa’s largest producer of oil and gas, with the largest reserves of natural gas—is this lack of truth-telling, which is a consequence of the afront meted out to the citizens of the most populous black nation in the world. Leadership affront is the primer of the lies that they tell, especially in the post-truth world of today: a world in which objective facts hardly hold sway. For instance, most political leaders who are either currently serving or out of office have been charged with financial impropriety in the manner they spend or spent public funds.
Recently, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), disclosed that the Commission has secured 3175 convictions and recovered over N156 billion. With several mistrials seen in courtrooms today, and the outcry for not being the highest bidders in judgment procurements, it is safe to say that the courts have courageously stepped up to the plate in the convictions of these unscrupulous leaders for financial malfeasance. Regardless, the end of such convictions is not yet in sight.
By the by, Nigerian banks, too, appear to be complicit in this mendacity: lack of truth-telling and ethical practices. The EFCC claims that 70 percent of financial crimes in Nigeria could be traced back to the banking sector. Beyond launching the Zero Tolerance Club at the University of Abuja, the Commission would have to take no prisoners in hunting down corruption by political leaders without seeing them as sacred cows.
About four months ago, Mr. Ola Olukoyede avowed to prosecute Former Governor Bello. “If I do not personally oversee the completion of the investigation regarding Yahaya Bello,” Mr. Olukoyade vowed, “I will tender my resignation as the EFCC chair”, It has been several months now since he made the avowal. The former governor has neither been arrested nor seen in public. Unfortunately, political leaders who are helming the affairs in Nigeria do not tell their constituents the truth about how they are being led. Those in positions of power ought to realize that “If you don’t tell the truth, the world falls apart”, according to Jordan Peterson. Telling the truth at all levels liberates the people.
Considering, for instance, the legislature even at national and sub-national levels, the ultimate bipartisan issue in telling the truth should be lifting the people out of poverty and encouraging entrepreneurship among teeming Nigerian youths. The youths usually, in their entrepreneurial ventures, do not even ask for much to scale. Any conscientious government would be attuned to the fact that its teeming youth is the reckoning of a failing system needing redemption. Instead, what we see in all of this is malevolence of all hues and shapes; poverty, and all kinds of psychological problems leading to the reinforcement of a badly functioning system. The axiom “anything built on lies fails” is true in more ways than Nigerian politicians would accept. The failure may not be instantiated but it always manifests as incremental but systemic.
Going by the social stratification of development, as we are familiar with; namely, education, income, or wealth—no matter the stratum— the numbers reveal that Nigeria is not near what and where it could be. Some of the apparent reasons for this backwardness have led young and old people to hit the streets in protest—protest that dragged and staggered for days unhinged. Furthermore, these apparent reasons are substrates of the obvious ones. They include extreme hunger, which in part is a consequence of extreme poverty, quasi-institutions, and corrupt spending. Each of the examples reinforces the other like a recurring decimal.
Over time, Nigeria has increasingly been on a downward spiral where the will of the people is pathologically represented. Contemptible leaders deceive the people all the time. These leaders, who deserve the disrespect they mete out, lie and deceive by means of coordinated fallacies. But what they cannot do is to hope that the negative patterns that people see on a daily basis can be ignored. No, they cannot be ignored, not even with the propaganda bandied by some media outriders and motormouths who blather in defense of subsidy and Naira float policies —Tsk, tsk!
There have been claims and counterclaims of President Tinubu, his cabinet members, and other politicians spending recklessly despite an ill-timed subsidy removal and exchange rate float, which are direct causes of the hunger and food inflation in the country today. It is a laundry list of corrupt spending. This list is incomplete without mentioning that the FCT Minister, Chief Nyesom Wike, used at least 21 billion Naira to remodel the Vice President’s house. It was however indefensible that during the COP 28 climate conference in Dubai, the government shelled out N2.7 billion in airfares and estacode in the face of starving Nigerians.
A Premium Times editorial recounted that President Bola Tinubu reduced the number of his entourage on foreign and domestic trips. Many have viewed the action as laudable as it was much anticipated. A move to make government spending as lean as it could get. It is also reported that Vice President Shettima’s travels are not left out in this cost reduction exercise.
In fairness to President Tinubu, the state governors are not exempt from embarking on this prudent journey. Although many have accused them of acting as emperors in their states, they can also change the narrative by stacking it up prudently. After all, once upon a time, Former Governor Peter Obi demonstrated prudence in his time in Anambra State by traveling alone to Abuja for official assignments. On arrival, as a governor, he will merely ask the commissioner of Police of the FCT to furnish him with security details momentarily. State governors can proactively stop traveling in caravans and model such prudent behavior by a former governor.
A country with a budget deficit of N9.18 trillion and a debt profile of N87 trillion; out of these disturbing numbers, 96 percent is spent on service alone. President Tinubu has no reason to continue in the profligate habits of the previous administrations. His administration would have to insist on cutting down on its presidential fleet. As a leader who seems to be able to bite the bullet, just as he botched up the subsidy removal. President Tinubu should have frowned at the N6 billion proposed for the construction of a new car park; N2.9 billion in the replacement of operational vehicles at the Villa, N5 billion for a recreational boat; N2.9 billion for the procurement of more SUVs for the presidential villa too. This is not a prudent posture. As much as It could be pointless to believe these claims without a reasonable ground for accepting them, there seems to be abundant verification of the evidence.
Regardless of all this misfortune, one can substantively argue that Nigeria had been on a proper trajectory, though short-lived. A trajectory that reflected the noble ideals and memes of its political culture handed down by the founding fathers. Fair enough, Nigeria had got a few things right. But the point is that whatever the achievements might have been, Nigeria is way under par relative to other countries with whom it shares similar economic, social, and educational challenges.
For one thing, it is disingenuous for respectable leaders to constantly spout-off insincere, long-winded speeches that lead to actions that do not reflect the aspirations of the people who elected them into office. Out with it, leaders! Speak the truth and let the chips fall where they may. No wonder Voltaire, the French Philosopher, said that men use thought only as authority for their injustices, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts. Consequently, it is high time they stopped deceiving their constituents with sugarcoated speeches full of all kinds of lies. For another thing, it is high time they practiced truth-telling. Only then will Nigeria begin to make significant progress and reap the fruits of conscientious leadership. President Tinubu must be seen leading from the front in truth-telling, instead of sounding prolix at every opportunity to address matters at issue. President Tinubu has a golden chance to lift his head up in vindication. Whatever he deems as his cop-out for throwing Nigeria into this hardship is untenable.
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