For President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his first three weeks in office have been a success so far. He has demonstrated grit and a nerve that was lacking in the past eight years of his predecessor. Interestingly, unlike Muhammadu Buhari who enjoyed tremendous goodwill before coming to office, Tinubu’s legitimacy is being contested. Also, unlike Buhari who had failed three times before finally becoming president, Tinubu became president at his first attempt and has shown a high level of preparedness to push through his agenda as president.
While President Buhari spent the first six months of his administration floundering not showing any sign of a man who had his job cut out for him and was prepared to take on the task, Tinubu, on the other hand, after three weeks has shown what it means to come to office prepared and focused.
First, Buhari spent six months unsure whether he needed ministers or not. Tinubu has begun by appointing 20 special advisers even before the 10th National Assembly was inaugurated on June 13.
While Buhari spent eight years tolerating and accommodating ministers and aides who are clearly not living up to their tasks, Tinubu has drawn the lines and warned his appointees to either shape up or be reading to be shipped out of office.
Tinubu’s first act to show political office holders that it will not be business as usual, was when on his second day in office, he ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) out of the office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which the former had taken over in a manner that simply brings to the fore the prolonged problem of inter-agency rivalry which affected and hampered the smooth operation of government under Buhari.
Can there be any better way to demonstrate the impertinence and recklessness of government operatives than what happened in the case of the DSS against the EFCC. DSS was preventing officials of the EFCC from gaining access to their office in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The DSS blocked the whole building and placed an armoured tank at the front of the building to scare operatives of the EFCC. Both agencies have been in loggerhead over the ownership of the building.
Recall how the former larger than life Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami, in May 2020, evicted staff of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) office space at the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) building in Abuja. NCC is under the control of the ministry Pantami heads. The allegations and counter allegations were open spectacle for all to watch while the presidency stood aloof.
Also, another sign that the president is not ready to brook or indulge any untoward conduct from any quarters was when he ordered the suspension and arrest of the former Governor of the Central Bank, Mr. Godwin Emefiele. Mr. Emefiele, in my estimation, overreached himself by aspiring and seeking the office of the president of the country while he still occupied his office as CBN governor. He simply had the room to do that because the presidency was lacking in direction and leadership.
However, the decision to arrest and treat him the way the security operatives went after him smarks of pettiness and vengeance. It is common knowledge that some persons loyal to the president had boasted that Emefiele would be dealt with when the government of Tinubu comes to office over the then Federal Government policy of currency redesign, which brought untold hardship on Nigerians.
If his rumoured funding of terrorism is the reason behind his arrest, that would be very strange, but it is obvious that some politicians who may have been offended by the monetary policies of the former CBN governor are seeking for their pound of flesh.
Blaming Emefiele for the currency redesign is simply scapegoating, as that policy was by Buhari who also admitted as much in public. Buhari had as military head of state implemented a similar currency change in 1984. By the way, can Emefiele alone implement such a policy without the approval of the President?
Similarly, the suspension of the chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, was a welcome development. That office can ill-afford the barrage of allegations of corruption that all occupants of that office have been accused of.
In the first place, if President Buhari was a little conscientious on his choice of Bawa, he would not have appointed him chairman of the anti-graft commission given the allegations and opposition against his choice to head that agency.
There was a report that he was arrested and detained in 2019 for allegedly selling at least 244 trucks worth between N20-30 million each to his proxies at N100,000 per unit, while he was in the Port Harcourt zonal office of the EFCC, where he worked then as zonal head depriving the country of about N4.8 billion in potential loot recovery.
It was disclosed that the forfeiture proceedings of most of the trucks were yet to be concluded when Bawa allegedly disposed of them. This, according to the report made the former EFCC Secretary, Ola Olukoyede to confront the new EFCC boss in 2019, as he was said to have received complaints that Bawa was tampering with assets undergoing forfeiture proceedings.
Corruption remains the singular reason the nation has remained comatose, therefore, the least that is expected of the occupant of that important office, like Caesar’s wife, is that such a person must be above suspicion. Anything other than that will mean that the anti-corruption war remains a charade.
Also, the elimination of the dual exchange rates in the market which had enriched a few who simply indulged in arbitrage and made fortunes by simply circumventing the system cannot go on forever.
Finally, and perhaps the boldest act of President Tinubu was the abolition of the petrol subsidy scam which has been used to fleece the nation of billions of dollars over a long period of time. Perhaps, there could not have been a better time than in 2012 when President Goodluck Jonathan had wanted to stop it. As fate would have it, it is the same APC opposition led by former President Buhari backed by President Tinubu, which not only kicked against it, but also promised to ground the government of Jonathan if the pump price was not reversed.
Fast forward to 2023; President Tinubu has taken the bull by the horns and ended the subsidy regime. What the president would now do to ameliorate the sufferings of the people, who currently do not enjoy any form of subsidy whatsoever, remains to be seen.
So, for President Tinubu, it is a case of so far so good. He has exhibited courage and determination to steer the ship of state to safety. He needs all the support to safely birth that ship and he should also endeavor to show the people why they must bear with his government. He must ensure that his government is not seen to be exhibiting recklessness in the use of public funds. He must ensure that just like the people are being tasked to cut their excesses to survive the excruciating bangs of hunger and hardship, the government should also be frugal and accountable to the people.
