CAN TINUBU CHANGE THE NARRATIVE OF THE PAST?

The administration must avoid rushing its steps to prevent the crushing of its good intentions, writes

 Kunle Jenrola

“When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge”

  -Tuli Kupferberg

At no time in recent memory did Nigeria require a more deliberate effort at revamping structures of governance and revaluating  modems of loyalty or patriotism than at  this unfolding epoch.

For too long, Nigerians in both public and private endeavours have been driven by a “business- as- usual” mentality culminating in a vicious cycle reminiscent of much activity with little productivity.

It is sad that rulership, not leadership; nepotism, not nationalism and bureaucracy, not adhocracy have manacled development and reposed wry confidence in strong men at the expense of strong institutions, continually.

Yet, this pictorial version of the cliche that you cannot be “doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results”, contrasts starkly with the high expectations of Nigerians for a life beyond “suffering and smiling”.

Somehow, successive governments which held out so much promise of change and raised the hope for a better Nigeria at inception had always betrayed trust, thereby creating columns of cynical citizenry.

Needless to state that the laid-back leadership style  of former President Muhammadu Buhari had intensified the quest for a clear departure from eight years of parlous economy, insecurity, corruption and sheer profligacy.

The situation was such that irrespective of the infrastructural gains brought to the table, many Nigerians, still smarting from the politics and socio- economic woes of the President Buhari days would rather have nothing do with the party that produced him.

It was against this backdrop that the emergence of another All Progressives Congress (APC) government under the then presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu was a proposition that bore the objectionable insignia of 16 years of three Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governments in power.

As events began to unfold however, Tinubu’s ability to be his own man  was becoming discernible given the melodramatic intra-party conflict of interests which witnessed a bare-knuckle slug between him as APC Standard-bearer  and the APC government of President Buhari over the persistent fuel queues and poor policy implementation of the new naira swap – especially at the peak of a presidential election campaign.

The plot and resolution of the pre-election conflicts between Buhari and Buharists necessitating a Supreme Court judgement on the new currency swap remains a study in the triumph of conviction over connivance in national politics.

But now, in the full flush of a President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s (PBAT) administration, opinions divide on whether we are on the cusp of another rollercoaster ride with rising cost of living occasioned by inflationary trends in the prices of food, transportation and energy consumption.

Indicators of misery index such as

unemployment, capital flight, debt burden, flip-flopping policy decisions and despondent populace signify a relapse into the “same old, same old”  bouts of hardship and a familiar scepter of anomie.

Although, President Tinubu’s “rags to riches” antecedents, even if stymied by self -inflicted controversies, reveal a persona of stoic conviction to change management ideals and industrious ideas, his reality as the helmsman at a time of grave economic challenges cannot succumb to mythical Midas’ touch sentimentality.

Specifically, many are eager to interrogate what President Tinubu has done or failed to do within his first 100 days in the saddle to signal a break from a past of malversation on national discourse, ill-conceived projects, badly- implemented socio- economic policies or weak predisposition to fighting corruption.

Consequently, anxieties increase on how we can break free from the stranglehold of bad governance and poor husbandry of resources of the past. The question also arises on whether there’s an urgent need to tinker with our statutes, structures and systems of administration.

 Perhaps, it’s time we changed our attitude and culture of soulless cynicism as a people.

It must be acknowledged that true to his “Jagaban”, war-leadership persona, PBAT hit the ground running on May 29 with his headlong confrontation of arguably Nigeria’s most cancerous economic challenge: Removal of Subsidy on Petrol and an end to over N400bn average monthly bill.

Clearly, his surgical approach to block a major drainpipe of our trickling resources was a radical departure from the past. But the jury is still out on the odd- clinicality of his N5bn post-subsidy withdrawal panacea typified by strictured deployment of interventionist goodies to soothe the harshness of the policy through the states of the federation.

As we speak, the disbursement of a first tranche of N2bn per state is percolating either in the expectation of a mass of resilient citizens, or escalating the restiveness of Organized Labour.

The disheartening incidents of looting of warehouses , waylaying of consumables-bearing trucks and bloody fights over palliatives paint a gory picture of the pangs of hunger in the land.

Worse still, potentially ground- shifting reform in the tertiary level of education aimed at facilitating the payment of tuition fees through a government- guaranteed Students Loan Scheme is running into the muddy waters of haphazard implementation.

This is a dampener to the hope renewed by the June 12,  Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2023  passed into law with the assent of the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The Act was designed to create a legal framework for the granting of loans to indigent or low-income Nigerians in order to facilitate the payment of their tuition fees.

Regrettably , in the wake of the  astronomical hike of fees across public universities, the  unflattering twin-prospects of increased  rates of school dropouts and disruption to academic calendar through looming students’ protests are odious reversion to the ignoble past.

Even the other bold step at regulating our foreign exchange windows through the merger of the windows as a means of attracting foreign investment appears to be floundering on the desert of sluggish inflow of foreign investment and weaker naira.

On the issue of attracting foreign investments, due

diligence must be exercised to firm up $14bn investment promissory note from India, bilateral agreements of further support from Germany, United States and other industrialised nations so to give vent to PBAT’s negotiating skills.

While all these agreements are being secured however, emphasis must be placed on creating a foreign- investment- friendly environment in spontaneity with the impressive salesmanship pitches of President Tinubu.

In the bid to attract foreign investments, it is highly recommended that diaspora funds should receive sovereign guarantees as an incentive for this low hanging fruits.

We should make no mistakes about the fact that genuine foreign investors are nobody’s fools and are not in the business of planting on a landmine-laden field of insecurity, bureaucracy and infrastructural deficiencies and  erratic power generation .

Besides, a cautionary note in informing Nigerians about these breakthroughs resonates in the cross communication or outright denial by the United Arab Emirates of the recent PBAT- enabled agreement to lift its visa suspension on Dubai- loving Nigerians as well as restore flight schedules of the Etihad and Emirates Airlines.

This preventable controversy smacks of the old attitude of applying unilateral interpretation to bilateral or multilateral issues.

A desirable way of changing our narrative is to allow agreements narrate their own impact.

Yes, the business of communicating the achievements of a government that’s rightly hungry for validation is slippery but, a new, hope restoring and trust retaining style of communication should dictate conciseness and correctness at all times.

While it is meat to brandish deals struck with foreign investors as a psychological means of shoring up our foreign reserves and stabilising the naira, there’s urgent need to confront our perennial domestic deficiencies.

A conscious attempt to reconstruct the nation’s inflection point to suit this narrative will seek to reduce our bloated cost of governance.

It would be crass hypocrisy for the operatives of the different arms of government to continue living in opulence amidst a deluge of 130million Nigerians defined by degrees of poverty.

Also, as a step to doing things differently, our debt portfolio should be given necessary attention. While Nigeria’s huge foreign debts may be easily verifiable ,

our unabating economic problems are rooted in unverified domestic debt burden through failed/stalled contracts or interminable variations.

The Ministers of Works, Engr. Dave Umahi and his Federal Capital Territory (FCT) counterpart, Mr Nyesom Wike painted a scary picture in this respect with the former inheriting a N14trn contract debt and the latter interrogating the circumstances under which the Ushafa-Bwari Road contract varied from N50 billion to N200 billion in a short spell.

It is refreshing, that all the new ministers have followed the lead of a performance- driven President Tinubu with Engr Umahi working on the design of a coastal road from Port-Harcourt to Lagos and a 460km-long Superhighway project from Abuja to Lagos. It must be mentioned that private sector participation should be encouraged in the infrastructural interventions, going forward.

What about the clearance of 60000 backlog of Nigerian passports propelled by the two-week ultimatum given the Immigration Services Department by the Interior Affairs Minister, Dr Olubunmi Tunji -Ojo?

Suffice it to say that, save the Buhari government which took six- long months to appoint ministers, these are familiar optics at the inception of every administration .

But since this context of high economic desperation of Nigerians is unfamiliar, the government must proceed on a different trajectory of follow -ups and sustainability of policy shifts.

This is where the courteous attitude, professionalism and patriotism of the public and civil servants would have to be on the radar.

Policies succeed, fluctuate or fail on the needle of implementation. Hitherto, civil servants had never given a good account of themselves in ensuring the delivery of policies or projects that could serve national interest, enduringly. The narrative whereby would- be investors are frustrated with a view to extorting personal gratification or bribes has to stop.

Realistically, no admonition to correct this anomaly can impact a bureaucracy where the top hierarchy is culpable and the salaries and emoluments of general workforce is laughable.

The question of approving a living wage and other incentives for government workers, including the police, across the board in collaboration with the organized Labour should be treated as immediate as the need to correct the incongruities of our system.

Of course there’s no way we can profess or project change without an assessment of our concept of federalism.  A recourse to the practice of fiscal federalism in a clime as diverse as Nigeria is overdue. A deviation from the legacy of our military past typified by command structure and the corruption of a federal system tying federating units to the apron string of the central government is the bane of national development.

Luckily, actionable reference materials abound in the 2014 National Conference Report and the APC-commissioned Governor Nasir El Rufai Report of 2018 on how to address challenges of resource control, devolution of power and ethnic nationalities, Local Government Autonomy and State Police in a bid to empower institutions of governance under a federal arrangement.

Indubitably, a system that promotes independence of each federating unit to exploit its own resources, generate revenue and secure its territory will unlock opportunities and innovate entrepreneurial capacities of its citizens.

This major change could well be the silver bullet for our problems of unemployment, insecurity, ethnic agitations and economic sabotage. It is not difficult to surmise that the ogre of violent protests by ethnic nationalities threatening to divide Nigeria would be tamed while the illegal mining of mineral resources and the rampant theft of crude oil that inhibit our foreign exchange earnings would be curtailed.

Unless there’s a quick rebrand strategy, this administration, in its bid to return the nation to a path of economic development, could be fanning a reputation of insincere implementation that could further erode the confidence and buy-ins of Nigerians in its policy decisions.

Even if one cannot deny or deride the enthusiasm and gusto with which President Tinubu is attempting to incentivise Direct Foreign Investment (FDI) and create wealth, this administration must avoid the temptation of rushing its steps to prevent the crushing of its good intentions.

Jenrola is a seasoned journalist and Communication Consultant