Does Tinubu deserve a second term?

This article should be written sometime towards the end of next year when the political parties will have elected their presidential candidates and running mates and when perhaps the country is but a couple of months to the general elections of 2027. When we do get to that junction as is customary, we can begin […]

This article should be written sometime towards the end of next year when the political parties will have elected their presidential candidates and running mates and when perhaps the country is but a couple of months to the general elections of 2027. When we do get to that junction as is customary, we can begin to assess the candidates and determine which one to support.

This commentary, however, is about the performance of President Tinubu in office so far and its effects on the people of Nigeria. This interrogation is necessary in the normal course of things in a democracy such as ours which will lead us to determine as is our constitutional right whether Tinubu is serving us as we expect of him, and also whether he is deserving of our votes in the future.

We can assess Tinubu’s performance on two broad planks; the economic policies he had instituted and the political engineering that his administration is undertaking.

Tinubu’s economic policies introduced right from the very first day of his ascension has been a matter of intense discussion among Nigerians in the past 18 months. The twin policies of subsidy removal and devaluation of the naira were intended, as the administration says, to free the government from expending huge funds on subsidising the supply of fuel to consumers which invariably ended up in the hands of oil marketers. The removal of such inefficient subsidies will free the funds to enable the government to provide much needed socially alleviating programmes in education, health, transportation and infrastructure.

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A similar argument was also advanced on currency devaluation. The naira’s parity against major currencies was considered too undeservedly high and unrealistic. And to keep it that way the government needed to prop it with huge amounts of foreign reserves detrimental to our economy. The government’s solution to that was to cut the naira loose from its arbitrary and artificial moorings by letting it float in the currency markets where its true value will be determined.

Tinubu’s political engineering had been mostly under the radar, but the intent and results are discernible and clear enough. The structure and organs of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) have been subsumed under his unquestionable authority.

Going by available statistics, Tinubu’s economic policies have engendered more pain than gain. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have repeatedly recorded an upward trend in the inflation of prices of goods and services, the latest notching close to 40 per cent and counting. Pump price of petroleum products has been rising, defying promises by the administration that once reforms in the industry stabilise including the conclusion of the revamping of the refineries, the ever soaring prices will ease.

The naira has been on a free fall occasionally rebounding only to fall again.

What can be realistically said is that under President Tinubu, the economic and political direction of Nigeria, as far as it concerns the lives of the majority of Nigerians, is uncertain. All the promises of a better future under his economic policies are neither realistic nor feasible. The basis of the economic policies is hinged on assumptions and factors that the administration itself does not understand or control. How for instance can you hope to implement policies on oil when you do not have a handle on the country’s oil sector? It is no brainer that without this critical factor in the mix, the hope that the administration placed on subsidy removal to turn around things in the sector and the economy had proven to be a mirage.

Tinubu’s political engineering is a clear and present danger to our democratic march. It is all about closing the political space establishing him as an absolute ruler of Nigeria dispensing with constitutional provisions and extant laws of the country.

Tinubu’s ascension to power was based largely on an entitlement complex that it was his turn to be the president.

The venerable Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who implemented policies that changed and transformed the lives of generations of Nigerians, would never have contemplated the punishing economic and social measures that Tinubu is presently ramming down the throats of Nigerians, without a touch of empathy. Similarly, Sir Ahmadu Bello, despite his aristocratic background as scion of the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate Usman Dan Fodio was, however, a modicum of simplicity, recognised the need for inclusivity    and the diversity of the northern region which he ruled as Premier. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was known not just in Nigeria but throughout Africa as a democratic humanist whose commitment to democratic principles remained unwavering till his passing on. And Aminu Kano and J.S. Tarka, both of them champions of downtrodden masses of Nigeria against oppressive rulers and their policies.

These are the founding fathers of Nigeria whose legacies of democratic inclusion, social and economic justice, empathy had sustained Nigeria.

In determining the performance of President Tinubu, we should bear in mind that this is a continuation of the disastrous eight years of his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, who laid the foundation of the present trajectory of economic and political uncertainty Nigeria is going through. We should not be lulled into believing that one is different from the other as being peddled about. Shorn of all the spin, the only way we can realistically measure both is from the effect their policies have had on our lives and livelihoods. And we all know that our experience under both have been basically the same.

Conclusively, if we took our eyes off the ball when Buhari went for second term on a platter and paid dearly with the harsh economic policies he unleashed, the lesson this time around Nigerians should be more discerning in reaching their decision on whether President Tinubu deserves a second term or not.