Wednesday, last week, was the 65th Independence anniversary of Nigeria. As is the tradition, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu gave the Independence Day broadcast of hope which has always been the same over the years. They have always been long in promises and very esoteric in nature, but miniature in delivery and substance.
The script writers for the Presidents over the years have been more preoccupied with niceties of speeches and their fluidity to care whether these otherwise impressive speeches resonate with the ordinary man on the streets.
First, we must admit that it will be most unfair to heap all the blame on President Tinubu but we must also be quick to tell him that while we can understand the enormity of the tasks before him, we also will not spare him if after four years these promises do not transform to tangibles for the Nigerian people.
It has remained my humble submission that the President can be forgiven for underestimating the challenges of that office, however, he has to do more to show that he is primed for the job.
His opening statement where he remarked that it is much easier for those whose vocation is to focus solely on what ought to be, appears like the typical line from the playbook of Muhammadu Buhari’s regime.
The reason Buhari failed abysmally was because he refused to believe that those who hold contrary views also meant well for the nation. They spent all their tenure pouring venom and invective on opposition that they simply had nothing to show outside of the chaos, recklessness and retrogression that characterised his reign.
Another similarities which President President Tinubu seem to have taken out of the Buhari presidency’s playbook is standing aloof while his lieutenants are daily whipping up ethnic sentiments and prejudices against the opposition. That was how Buhari spent his eight years unabashedly making us realise that his one mission was to advance the cause of his regional, religious and ethnic beliefs.
President Tinubu must be prepared to dwell more on what ought to be, as that is the only way we can appreciate how farther afield we have drifted. Dwelling more on what is, is like dancing alone and assuming yourself to be the best dancer in the world.
For Tinubu to achieve much in office, he must listen more to the wailers than the hailers, apologies to Buhari’s publicists. The hailers are only interested in their personal gratification.
Whereas I do not intend to dwell on the economic indices and data on developmental gains indicators which he so lavishly gave us, my only response is that until these impact on the people, it remains mere statistics for academic exercises.
First, President Tinubu talked about Nigerians today having access to better education and healthcare than in 1960.
According to him “At Independence, Nigeria had 120 secondary schools with a student population of about 130,000. Available data indicate that, as of 2024, there were more than 23,000 secondary schools in our country. At Independence, we had only the University of Ibadan and Yaba College of Technology as the two tertiary institutions in Nigeria. By the end of last year, there were 274 universities, 183 Polytechnics, and 236 Colleges of Education in Nigeria, comprising federal, state, and private institutions.”
This submission on education cannot be contested, but in reality do we expect that with a current estimated population of over 200 million compared to what it was in 1960, this growth should not be given? What the president failed to tell us is the percentage voted for education in the 1960 budget compared to the budget of today. What was the welfare or wages and living standard of teachers and students like in 1960 compared to today?
What’s the worth of our certificates outside the shores of this country today? This way we will pay more interest in development of standards and not mere physical growth.
This too applies to healthcare. What is the state of our health institutions and health delivery like in 1960 compared to today? Has the brain-drain in that sector been halted or are doctors today better treated than they were in 1960? Can someone from, say Ghana, come to Nigeria to seek medical care?
Again, what the president did not tell us is the plans he has to improve the state of our health institutions, to at least reduce medical tourism. How soon can we possibly see our president, the governors, ministers in our general hospitals? At least, just to experience first hand what is on ground?
His claim also that the country has made notable advancements by refining PMS domestically for the first time in four decades and has also established itself as the continent’s leading exporter of aviation fuel, is again stating the obvious. Thanks largely to the involvement of Aliko Dangote and, of course, the president’s support but more still needs to be done to encourage others to come onboard, and to give Nigerians the reprieve they expect from refining locally.
On the social investment programme to support poor households and vulnerable Nigerians, the president said N330 billion had been disbursed to eight million households. This is open to debate, because given our previous experience, this might just be one of those spurious claims.
When will we begin to identify these households in our neighbourhoods?
On security, a lot still needs to be more, however, what cannot be contested is that this government has done by far better than the previous government. For the first time we are having reports of the killings of leaders of Boko Haram and bandits and others. But again, the government has remained silent on who the sponsors of these groups really are. Why are we afraid to name those sponsoring the murderers?
So far, we should hail the efforts of the officers and men of the armed forces for putting their lives on the line to ensure that we sleep with both eyes closed, but given the right support financially and politically these men are capable of more.
In ending his speech, President Tinubu agreed that the accurate measure of the government’s “success will not be limited to economic statistics alone, but rather in the food on our families’ tables, the quality of education our children receive, the electricity in our homes, and the security in our communities.”
He couldn’t have been more apt. That’s only when these macro-economic indexes he so often talks about will make any meaning.
Finally, President Tinubu called on us to patronise ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ goods. “I say Nigeria first.” That was how he put it. However, he again failed to prove his Nigeria first in action.
Imagine what the impression the president would have had on the nation if he had ordered that henceforth only locally manufactured cars would be allowed in governments, states, ministries, parastatals and agencies. And no more foreign trips on vacations.
Imagine what the optics would have been like and the ripple effects that would have had in the businesses of these local car manufacturers, businesses and ultimately the economy!
