Two Years on: Tinubu's Fulfilled Promises

“ So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, so long will Caesars and Napoleons arise to make them miserable," - Aldous Huxley

Exactly two years today, Nigeria entered an unforgettable new chapter in her political trajectory when Bola Ahmad Tinubu was sworn in as Nigeria’s 16th President, a job he fervently looked for. He kick-started his four-year tenure dramatically with this watershed pronouncement: 'From today subsidy is gone'. By that unguided blazoning the administration began a tortuous mission of impoverishing Nigerians, reducing a significant arm of the population to penury. In truth, that singular proclamation has turned many Nigerians from middle class to poverty and the hitherto poor into multi-dimensional poverty, MDP.

There are other attendant consequences of this action that have successfully turned the renewed hope mantra of the President into a dampened hope in all ramifications of governance. It might even be safe to say that while renewed hope was promised by the President, he has blatantly delivered dampened hope to Nigerians in the last 24 months. The negative impact of the regime in two years has been gargantuan, with an unprecedented hardship never witnessed in Nigeria in peacetime.

 As we try to review the administration’s two-year journey, its effect on human development is going to be the barometer of measurement. The government may have rolled out make-believe, achievements, but what impact are such having in the lives of the people?

What does it mean to a parent that a government is building a super highway, but he cannot feed or pay school fees of his children due to policies of such government? How does a government that is building a superhighway, scraping good roads in the city, and redoing it to impress when the hinterland and the bedrock of economic activities have no access road?

In two years,  the only noticeable promise fulfilment from President Tinubu’s electioneering, which he has dutifully followed, is that he would continue the good work his predecessor,  Muhammedu Buha, already started. There is no department of governance that Tinubu has not enhanced Buhari’s ‘achievements’ On November 2022 at the flag off of the APC Presidential campaign in Jos, Plateau state, the then-presidential candidate Bola Tinubu,  said that if elected President in 2023, his administration will build on the achievements of  President, Muhammadu Buhari.

According to him, Buhari performed well in the areas of infrastructure and a solid foundation for the development of agriculture and other sectors.

“We were insecure, we turned to retired Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and he embarked on rehabilitation, recovery and redemption of Nigeria.

“Nigeria was sinking but Buhari pulled us out and said that Nigeria will not sink in his time and in the time of the APC,” he said.

“We are determined to ensure that nobody will go to bed without food in their stomach.

“Buhari cares and we care too.  

In accessing the two years of this regime, we will therefore be using the above statements as a yardstick to establish how fatal or otherwise the regime has been even though two years after, the narration, is changing. The National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu says Tinubu inherited an extremely bad government. Various government officials have also screamed the same lamentation against Buhari’s regime. How did the same Buhari automatically become such a terrible President who handed over a terrible government? What all that is showing copiously is that chronic sycophants are the occupants of the corridor of power in government.

But in this discourse, we will try to review the two years of the regime sector by sector to establish the fact that, in truth, Tinubu has significantly improved on Buhari’s disastrous reign. In the area of corruption, Nigerians have seen that the garb Buhari, in his pretence, was unable to wear corruption in the public sector for a flamboyant showcase; this regime has sown and worn it even with a fitting cap.

On insecurity,  they claimed that Buhari removed all the flags, the terrorists hoisted in our territories and restored order and peace, but in two years, the insecurity has tripled in various shapes and sizes to the extent that they now invade military armouries to collect weapons.

On the eve of the two-year’s’s celebrations of the regime, just as they flaunt the so-called achievements in the area, of security, APC’s Borno state Governor Babagana Zulum alerted the nation that, the terrorists are taking more territories, and even further alleged that the terrorists have their allies In military and political operatives. The killings across the country, particularly the latest from Plateau, Zamfara, Kaduna, Katsina and Benue states, have been a huge improvement from Buhari’s era.

In the area of nepotism as an administrative lifestyle, the Tinubu era has shown more expertise than Buhari. While Buhari was large-hearted to spread his biased appointments among mostly Fulanis and other Muslim Northerners, Tinubu did not want to give anything to chance.  For instance, Buhari, being more generous, gave an Igbo man from Delta state the position of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and he got a service no Fulani would have given him and his cronies for that trust. But Tinubu will not take that risk with money in the hands of another tribesman.

As for Tinubu, all revenue points of the federal government have to be with his Yoruba kinsmen. After all, it's their turn- the CBN, the Finance, Blue Economy, Mining Ministries, the Customs, the Federal Revenue Service, the Maritime, the NNPCL, Immigration, etc. To ensure adequate protection for them, the Police, the Army and the DSS have to be with them. After all, Buhari did exactly the same.

In the area of nepotism in appointments and project siting, Buhari, looking back now, will be envious of his success, who has shown more intelligence in that regard.

 Not even in visiting hospitals abroad, has Tinubu not surpassed Buhari. In two years, Tinubu’s visits to hospitals abroad have exceeded Buhari’s in eight years. While Buhari’s confidant in the UK, his hospital base was the Archbishop of Canterbury, Tinubu went further. His hospital base is both UK and France, and he successfully grabbed the  French President Emmanuel Macron as his own confidant.

On Tinubu’s relationship with his deputy, while Buhari managed to tolerate Prof Yemi Osinbajo and made the 'mistake' once of handing over power to him as required by the constitution during one of his frequent visits to the hospital, Tinubu would not do that, as he never allowed his Vice Kashim, Shettima to smell power. Instead, he declared all his hospital trips a working visit.  

On cabinet formation, Tinubu also significantly improved Buhari’s team; he has more members, including his son, who visits during FEC meetings. Perhaps the most colourless and lifeless cabinet in recent times is here with us. After two years hardly is any Minister’s name remembered. School children and teachers cannot even remember the name of the Minister of Education. While Buhari had loquacious Lying Mohammad as Information Minister, making some noise to be remembered, the current Minister of Information has been drowned by the barrage of voracious attack dogs who are perhaps more and better funded.

Undoubtedly,  the only Minister whose name rings a bell but more for the nuisance value he brings to the table than the few achievements he has actually recorded is Minister Nyesom Wike.

Nowhere has Tinubu’s two years shown more confusion than in the area of the economy. If Buhari’s era was lulled, Tinubu’s two years have been active, but the activism is similar to the busyness of a bull in a China shop. The effect reflects on the inflation rate, which is at a record high.

In foreign relations, Tinubu’s two years have had a serious dent as the ECOWAS sub-region is disintegrating under his watch with the three sub-regional nations of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger Republic pulling out due to the indiscretions of Nigeria’s leadership handling of the political situation in these countries.

But one area in Tinubu that has shown its prowess more than in any sector of governance is the area of politics. Here, he outshines the naivety of Buhari, making politics a huge priority. That is why two years into a four-year tenure, it seems as if the election will come up next week. As far as Tinubu is concerned, the relevance of anybody in and out of his administration is measured on their contributions to the political agenda of the President’s second term bid more than in governance.  It's perhaps this desperation that dragged him into the biggest mess in his two-year reign, which exposed his excess show of power in the state of emergency in Rivers State. That unilateral action has been surrounded by a lot of controversies and has also helped to expose the other arms of the government, the legislature and the judiciary as they obviously are hiding in Tinubu’s pocket.

 That is why there are palpable concerns that Tinubu's administration may be relying on electoral manipulation to secure victory in the 2027 elections.  

While the President’s propaganda machines have been rolled out to beat the drum of high achievements of the regime in the last two years what is not hidden from all political and government watchers is that Nigerians are grappling with economic and security crises, showing a significant disconnect between the government's promises and the people's experiences.

This fact is like a light appearing to consume darkness and if this administration is really responsive to the people’s feelings, this reality should guide their action going forward. Not to do that in a democratic setting is to undermine the people's electoral potential. Even as an incumbent, seeking political power outside the people in a democracy is like rationing justice while praying for peace. If so God have mercy on our democracy. God help us.