President Bola Tinubu
Two days ago, President Bola Tinubu rejigged his cabinet, a move widely believed to be belated but commendable.
In the new cabinet, some non performing ministers were dropped, ministries merged and new blood injected into the cabinet.
The steps taken by the President is symbolic in many ways. First, National Waves is of the view that finally President Tinubu has hearkened to the calls by Nigerians to weed out dead woods from his administration and bring in new bloods who can genuinely atune themselves to his vision for the country. Secondly, it’s a testament to his doggedness to reposition the country for the better.
As symbolic and commendable as the gesture is, we are of the view that the President should muster enough courage to go the whole hog by taking measures that can lead to the reduction of basic commodities such as foods and essential daily needs of the people. Much as we commend his far reaching reforms, we also note its corrosive effects on the living conditions of Nigerians. In this regard, the administration should embark on taking drastic measures to reduce the cost of foods, energy and transportation.
Nigerians are a people that do not make much demands on their leaders, once they are given enabling environment to thrive, go about their daily bread and guaranteed security they are good to go. It’s thus essential for the administration to work on reducing the costs of foods.
Citizens are happy that for the first term in the history of the country, Nigeria has had a president with progressive credentials and intimidating antecedent in democratic struggle for emancipation of the oppressed, it’s therefore for the Tinubu administration a messianic mission to live up to the billing.
The introduction of Students Loan is a commendable work in progress, such efforts should be replicated in electricity bill which has risen beyond the reach of the common man. Efforts should be made to create a middling position between total deregulation of energy sector and the needs of the people, as even in the Western world, certain sectors that are critical to the lives of citizens are subsidized.
Now that the federal government has done much to reduce the cost of governance at the levels of the executive, it would seem the exercise is not yet completed until it’s brought down to the legislature.
Members of the National Assembly should be prevailed upon to cut the number of aides and retinue of staff whose only relevance is just sheer political settlements of individuals who contributed to the victory of their bosses who are now members of the Assembly.
Leaders should lead by example. Since the advent of this administration, Nigerians have gone through a lot of sacrifice without commensurate sacrifice on the part of our leaders and elected representatives at the State and Federal levels. This is not good enough.
Now is the time for the Assembly members to take a cue from President Tinubu’s action and reduce the numbers of aides and allowances, so that such funds can provide the needed relief for the people, revamp infrastructure and create jobs.
On a final note, we commend Tinubu’s action.
