For Tinubu, It’s Time for Governance

With the legal hurdle over the February 25, 2023, presidential election laid to rest last Thursday, President Bola Tinubu should concentrate on solving the myriad of problems facing the country, writes Festus Akanbi

The Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the valid winner of the presidential election that was held in the country on February 25.

As soon as the judgment was delivered, Tinubu in his speech, promised to exceed Nigerians’ expectations in service delivery.

The court in a unanimous decision, dismissed the appeals by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar; and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Peter Obi.

The seven-member panel ruled out the merit of the opposition’s appeals over claims of fraud, electoral law violations, and Tinubu’s ineligibility to run for president. It thrashed all the grounds of appeal of Atiku and the PDP on qualification, non-compliance with the Electoral Act, the 25 per cent votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and electoral malpractices.

The apex court dismissed Atiku’s appeal to admit his evidence from the Chicago State University, saying the time for the submission of fresh appeals had elapsed.

 “On the whole, having resolved all the issues against the appellant, it is my view that there is no merit in the appeal and it is hereby dismissed,” Justice Inyang Okoro said in dismissing Atiku’s appeal.

“The judgment of the court below delivered on September 6, 2023, affirming the election of the second respondent (Tinubu) as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is hereby affirmed,” he concluded.

On Obi’s appeal on the issue of the double nomination of Vice-President Kashim Shettima, the court held that the issue had been dealt with in its ruling on May 26.

“As for issue Number 4 which has to do with double nomination which was not in Atiku’s appeal, it is the view of this court that this issue having been dealt with by this court, this court cannot allow the matter to be re-litigated in this very court. There must be an end to litigation,” Justice Okoro held.

 “For us to sit down now and talk about when this man resigned or did not resign when they did fresh primaries to replace him which we have done before, we are not going to do this again….This appeal lacks merit and is hereby dismissed.”

Reacting to the judgment, Tinubu said he accepted the judicial victory with an intense sense of responsibility and a burning desire to meet the great challenges confronting Nigerians.

He added that the victory would further energise and strengthen his commitment to continue to serve Nigerians of all political persuasions, tribes, and faiths while expressing gratitude to Nigerians for the mandate to serve the country.

“With deep gratitude to God Almighty, I solemnly and humbly accept today’s judicial victory with an intense sense of responsibility and a burning desire to meet the great challenges confronting our people.”

The president noted that the victory at the courts has further reinforced his commitment to serve Nigeria and its citizens, adding that with the victory, his administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda will now gain fresh momentum.

“The victory of today has further energised and strengthened my commitment to continue to serve all Nigerians of all political persuasions, tribes, and faiths, with honour and total respect for the diverse opinions and uniting values of our citizens.”

 “We are all members of one household, and this moment demands that we continue to work and build our country together. The strength of our diversity and the great citizenship that binds us must now compel us forward in directing the energy of our people towards building a virile, stronger, united, and more prosperous country.

“In the days and months ahead, I trust that the spirit of patriotism will be elevated into supporting our administration to improve the living conditions of Nigerians. I am prepared to welcome the contributions of all Nigerians to foster and strengthen our collective progress,” he reportedly said.

With the legal hurdle over the election laid to rest, Nigerians expect President Tinubu to face the myriad of challenges facing the country from insecurity, bad economy to poor infrastructure.

All Nigerians want to see going forward is a country where they can live a decent life, move from point to the other without being kidnapped or killed, travel good roads, get jobs and electricity to power their means of production.

Since Tinubu came power n May 29, many Nigerians have been groaning in hardship. During his inauguration, the president announced the end of petrol subsidy regime, a decision, which global and local financial experts criticised for plunging more Nigerians into poverty and hopelessness. 

The criticisms stemmed from the lack of a clear-cut palliative programme before the implementation of the fuel subsidy removal which many analysts described as long overdue.

Apart from the removal of subsidy, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also announced the unification of all segments of the forex exchange (FX) market as part of efforts to engender transparency in the markets and boost investors’ confidence.  Although the policy has been widely applauded, it has put additional pressure on the local currency and manufacturers, with ripple effects on prices.

Both policies are being put in place at a time Nigerians are just recovering from the shocks of a controversial naira redesign policy that crippled businesses and made life difficult for many Nigerians who could not access their funds for several months.

Nigeria also faces erosion of its revenue largely caused by the failure to meet Nigeria’s OPEC quota as oil theft and opaqueness in crude oil management rob the country of the much-needed revenue.

As oil revenues dwindle so also the accretion of the nation’s foreign reserves. Coupled with the falling capital importation, the naira value has continued to nosedive so much that the Naira exchanged for a dollar at N1,168 at the unofficial market last week.

To compound Nigeria’s woes, the country witnessed a decline in total capital importation, dropping to $1.03 billion from $1.5 billion in Q2 2022, marking a 32.90 per cent decrease, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Analysts listed other challenges to include the unabated problem of insecurity especially in the food-producing regions of the North. The immediate fallout of this was the upsurge in food inflation as shown by the latest inflation figure of 26.72 per cent for September, while the interest rate is as high as 18.75 per cent.

The rising inflationary rate which underscores the corresponding rising level of hardship in the country is coming at a period when a research firm, KPMG predicts an unemployment rate of 40.6per cent in 2023, due to what it described as the continuing inflow of jobs seekers into the job market.

Similarly, the nation’s misery index, an indicator used to determine how economically well off the citizens of a country are, hit 55.2 per cent in February 2023, a continuous rise from 61.15 per cent in 2022, according to data from the NBS.

The expectation is that with the legal battle over his election laid to rest, the president and his team no longer have any excuse to tender for the growing misery of the Nigerian people. This is the time to act.

For the opposition, they must now start the arduous task of reinventing themselves. It is time to move away from a fight for power to building a veritable and people-driven opposition that will keep the government on its toes as it tries to deliver on its vision.