Fellow Nigerians, it is pertinent we ask ourselves how far our beloved country has gone, one year into the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT).
One year ago Tinubu was sworn in as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and he missed it in some ways from the beginning of his administration.
The first mistake was the announcement of subsidy removal without plan on ground to cushion the effects.
The second misstep was the unification of naira without prior plan, which up till today our currency has never find it’s foot in the world currency market.
Mr President announced students loan which up till now we are not sure it has been implemented.
The Senate went on rampage in financial miss management; acquiring for each of them N150 million worth of exotic car.
So many padding in the budget.
Avoidable wasteful expenditure obvious in taking large number of people running to hundred, abroad for meetings that only ten or twenty people could have attended.
Insecurity ravaging the country. So much kidnapping from the north to the south to the east to the west of Nigeria.
767 companies have left the shores of Nigeria because of bad economic policies, insecurity and epileptic power supply.
No longer hope of a bright future for Nigerian children.
Many households are sending their children abroad: to UK to USA to study, but not in Nigeria.
Employment for the youths is a major challenge and those who want to create job cannot find favourable environment for businesses to thrive.
One year after President Tinubu took over the mantle of leadership, where are we (as a nation)?
Many youths are fleeing the country the “Japa” syndrome, just because of the hardship in our dear country.
Our road in the west, north, south and east of this country are still as bad as anything and are more of death trap. Little will one wonder that there are so many accidents with many people dying almost on daily basis.
Instead of the administration to look into the road project, it’s white elephant project of Lagos/Calabar Coastal highway they are talking about. Is Lagos/Calabar Coastal Highway, a good project? Yes, it’s a good project. But is it what we need at this time? No it’s not what Nigerians need right now! And this administration may still borrow money in the name of the project, and a chunk of the money may find it’s way to the bank accounts of some individuals, while such project may be left uncompleted.
When it comes to insecurity and hunger, our country as at it’s peak, as we have the worst level of hunger as well as the highest level of insecurity in the world. Ukraine and Russia that are fighting war are safer than Nigeria, where there is no war. Though we are not at war, but the level of insecurity in Nigeria put our country at war everyday.
Countries where there was coup like Chad Republic are even better than our country where we are under democracy; that they say is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. But this Tinubu’s government has been for the few, very few and very few.
Till now government workers in Nigeria have not received pay rise despite that many of them cannot take home living wage.
Instead of this administration to take critical look at policies before formulating them, they just roll out policies and allow market forces to control them.
Monumental corruption issues are unaddressed properly: what happened to Beta Edu over the allegations of corruption leveled against her? There is no country that can succeed anywhere in the world where there is no adherence to the rule of law and where corruption is allowed. A country where it’s only the poor that are punished for breaking the law, but as far as the elite do not step on toes they are above the law. And even if they eventually take them to court, they faint or even develop sudden illness, so the case keep dragging for along time. What happened to former CBN governor, Emefiele accused of stealing so much? Up till now the case is still dragging in court.
One year after Mr President was sworn in, none of our refineries is working, despite the promise last year that Port Harcourt refinery was going to kick off before the end of the year. The year has ended and another year is going half way, none of our refineries is working. Rather, we are dependent on an individual, Alhaji Dangote to have a functional refinery in the country of over two million in population.
Many of the governors are not doing well in their states. They got N5 billion palliatives, yet till now we don’t know what most of them spend the palliatives on. And there is no governor who has been able to account for the palliatives released to them by the federal government. Then there is need for the federal government to ask them what they have used the money to do.
It doesn’t mean that there is nothing to give kudos to this administration for?
Number one, it’s kudos for releasing, Omoyele Sowore. And I am seizing this opportunity to call on the government to also release Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB. Because there is no point holding Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in custody.
We must also commend the fact that democracy is stable in our nation. For stabilizing democracy, this administration should also be commended.
However, the fact still remains that on the overall scorecard, this administration will be placed below 50%.
We are using this medium to call on President Tinubu to check his policies, the way things are going, and the economy of the nation. People are not smiling. People are dying on the street, Nigerians can no longer afford three square meal a day: not even two square meal.
Also we are using this opportunity to call the attention of Mr. President to the fact that there is still a lot to do. We are Nigerians home and abroad, and we want our country to succeed. So we are appealing to Mr President to give it what it takes to make our country succeed.
Bring in experts that know what they are doing. Let’s put policies on the table before we roll it out to Nigerians. So that at the end of the day, a good policy will not come out as a policy that will hit hard on Nigerians as the result of wrong implementation. Rather it should ease the trauma that people are going through.
The issue of insecurity must be effectively tackled. Quality and affordable education should be a major focus that this government needs to look into. Power (electricity) must be handled as the tariff keep going up, yet power supply keep coming down. A nation that will succeed must work to fix the electricity. Because once power is fixed in this country, then the problems have been cut in half.
I want to assert that we will continue to be an opposition: a formidable, positive and constructive opposition to this administration, but not a destructive one; because our desire is to ensure our country work and we have a nation we can all be proud of.
In conclusion, we will still celebrate our democracy. There is no perfect democracy anywhere in the world. We cannot get it right in one day. But some days, we will get it right. When some of us pick up a generational mantle of leadership and take over from our fathers. The fathers have done enough.
May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
May God bless you.
May God bless me.
I am Faduri Oluwadare Joseph aka Fadojoe.
The leader of Rescue Movement for New Nigeria aka Rescue The Vulnerable Initiative.
