President Bola Tinubu
Summarizing my expectation from President Tinubu’s administration simply implies me adopting the quote of Dwight D. Elsenhower which states “We believe that our truly urgent need is to make our nation secure, our economy strong and our dollar sound (In this case our Naira).” He further emphasized the fact that “For every American, this matter of the sound dollar is crucial. Without a sound dollar, every American family would face a renewal of inflation, an ever-increasing cost of living, the withering away of savings and life insurance policies.”
It is therefore in light of the above that my scope of primary expectations hinges on the followings:
i. Tackling Insecurity
ii. Economic Development
iii. Fostering and upholding the promised Unity in the Country.
E.R. Stettinius, Jr. said, “Happiness has many roots, but none more important than security”. Every rich man with a treasure in his house builds high fences and barricades to guard his treasures, so does every poor man have a door in front of his house in a bid to guard the little he can afford, all these are testaments to how important issues of Security is to everyone both rich and poor.
Hence, a vital reason why Insecurity has to be curbed by President Tinubu with utmost priority.
Kudos on the foremost to the President for the meeting held with all Service Chiefs and Heads of security agencies led by Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor on 1st June 2023 concerning measures to strengthen the Nation’s Security. However, Nigerians are anxious and awaiting the positive effect of the same as writings on the walls without implementations amounts to nullity. In effect, alongside the promises of the President of a topnotch secured Nigeria in his manifesto, officials involved right from the Commander-In-Chief of the Federation to the least security personnel are to safeguard the provisions of Chapter II and particularly Section 33 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
All regions of the State should receive adequate security attention and the lives of each and every citizen should matter and count in this present administration as against the former.
In a nutshell, the meeting held and the administration’s achievement should not only produce a Nigeria secured from oil theft but rather a Nigeria with zero Kidnappings, bombings, terrorism attacks, killings and on the whole, an unsafe Nigeria as the latter should be prioritized over the former in considering equity, good conscience and morality.
Given the above, it is also expected that the President review the national security architecture and relieve the Service Chiefs of their commission to pave the way for new ones, the choice of the National Security Adviser should be a season, intelligence and diplomatic Chief with the ability to coordinate the Nation security teams as well as to liaise with diplomatic community effectively.
David Cameron said “The economy is the start and end of everything. Nigeria can’t have successful education reform or any other reform if we don’t have a strong economy.” At this point in the country, a holistic economic policy is to be adopted by the President combing through all sectors and running safe of the lane of myopic stream of profit orientation or revenue generation for the country.
It should principally be noted that a single sector at this point cannot for instance employ the millions of populations existing in the country.
In essence, beyond oil production and availability, what next? A million and one promises have been made in several interviews, manifesto and even during the speech of the President on how a better economy would be enhanced during his administration some of which include the removal of subsidy on oil, adoption of a unified exchange rate, premium investments in the agricultural sector amidst several other outlooks and scopes.
I would however on the whole admonish the President to include in his spectrum measures of Improving Productivity in the country. i.e., graduating Nigeria from a consumption Nation to a Producing Nation. In doing this, several other measures are necessary beginning with improved legislation and the establishment of several other statutes, acts and laws that would enhance infrastructural developments with which ease in production would thereupon exist. Note that with the oil sector, our nation already has a huge foreign inflow and in this transition to a producing nation, where standard products are made (proponent to laws existing and bodies created to supervise their quality), existing markets are not just at hand but several further others inflows would as well be enhanced and the economy through the purchase of our productions in large numbers grow uncurbed.
I would as well use this medium to commend the President on the bold move of subsidy removal to curb further exploitations by suppliers of petroleum who in their wisdom created pseudo scarcity, hoarding the fuel on the President’s announcement of his intent to remove the subsidy on PMS at his inauguration speech.
However, the approach had its faults as the President ought to have done due diligence by creating several Palliatives that should have alleviated the resultant hardship of same on the citizens.
For instance, His Excellency before this move should have made available alternative transportation systems with lesser cost for ease of movement of people as well as agricultural produce from one state to another (the railway option or waterway options could have been put in place), in-depth checks and balances could have been done to allegations raised of several individuals benefiting from the subsidy and depriving the nation of the benefits of removal of same as this checks would curb embezzlement of the proceeds of this act and would allow the focus of the administration in boosting the growth of the economy actualized and finally, issues of restructuring our Local Refineries either by the government or privatizing same to private individuals to restructure them and create a competitive market when it comes to the refining of our oil within the Nation.
Moreover, it is expected that paying direct subsidies to some citizens should commence in earnest in the form of PMS Allowances for workers and PMS Benefits to others, after all some leaders received as much as Newspapers, Furniture, Wardrobe, Vehicle, Hazard etc allowances.
Finally, and Conclusively, Yoshihide Suga said “A strong economy is the source of National strength”. In Essence, once we have our economy thriving, it rubs off on our National Strength. I, therefore admonish His Excellency to not forget and implement the fostering, upholding and fortification of the Unity of our country as a whole. This cannot be downplayed by the present administration as it is sacrosanct to the development of the Nation as a whole and futuristically.
I on this note commend His Excellency on his current appointment of Chief Femi Gbajabiamila, a seasoned lawyer and the highest ranking parliamentarian as Chief of Staff, George Akume as Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Senator Ibrahim Hadejia as his deputy as this is a clear testament of not just zoning of offices to foster the country’s unity and involvement of all regions but also possess at the backend choice with topnotch competence and selection of able and capable hands from various regions who are geniuses in the offices they are appointed to manage.
The act of the President upholding the Country’s unity and getting it to a better state preserves the labours of our heroes past, curbs it from being in vain and on the whole helps the Nation to attain great lofty heights as stated in the second stanza of the Country’s anthem and with a resultant effect to build a nation where peace and justice prevails.
10th June 2023
Dr Olukayode Ajulo, OON, FCIArb. UK
Castle of Law,
Maitama-Abuja
[email protected]
