President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was on Tuesday represented at the 17th annual Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria Banking and Financial Conference held in Lagos by Vice President Kashim Shettima. The headline of the story that came out of that event, as reported in the Nigerian Tribune, reads: “We’ve taken courageous steps to reform economic environment.”
In the body of the story, Tinubu, through his vice president, highlighted what he meant by the “bold steps” being undertaken to reform the economy. The president said: “Though painful in the short term, the removal of fuel subsidies is designed to free up budgetary resources for critical investments in infrastructure and social services, frequent adjustment of the monetary policy rate, a move aimed at curbing inflation and fostering a more market-oriented exchange rate system.
“We are expanding broadband penetration and encouraging the growth of tech startups through initiatives such as the Digital Nigeria programme. For example, we currently train three million Nigerian youths in digital technology and essential skills and then deploy them to innovation hubs. These efforts are designed to create jobs, increase productivity, and make financial services more accessible to Nigerians in all corners of the country. It is essential to state that we are committed to achieving a 70% digital literacy level by 2027 through innovative approaches in delivering initiatives, continuous collaborations, and stakeholder engagement.”
Many would say those words are similar to what we’ve heard before. However, some would have wanted the president to touch base with the streets upon his return from China. He led the streets for years. He spoke their language when jeun soke was the popular lingo. Is the president abandoning his true self? Some would ask.
I’ve quoted the president’s speech at the CIBN programme extensively to showcase what is fast looking like a dialogue of the deaf between the streets of Nigeria and their leaders. Some people spoke a while ago, shouting ebi n pawa (we are hungry). The people are still hopeful the Ifa and Opele of the president will say something good, but what they are hearing about broadband expansion or bold reforms in the economy is not close. Surely the hungry man would find it difficult to understand the drive of Mr President and no matter how nice the digital drive sounds, the words will only enter the ears of a hungry man through his right and disappear through the left. Even as the government is yet to address how it intends to end hunger, the NNPCL added another sorrow with the increment in the pump price of petrol. As we speak, the corporation has again stopped the flow of fuel and queues have resurfaced. The product is expensive, it is also scarce. The NNPC is insulting us to our face. Even those who have the money to buy have to be humbled to spend hours in the filling stations.
As the Tinubu message dropped from Shettima’s lips, Nigerians were wondering what was amiss. Here is a president who has before him the case of an NNPCL, which suddenly jerked up fuel prices without any concrete explanation, save for the confusion it orchestrated in the process. Here is a president who should have questions for the same NNPC about why it has failed to actualise the purchase of fuel from the Dangote refinery, one week after the products were ready for lifting. And here is a president whose national oil giant has continued to favour massive fuel importation and payment of fuel subsidy instead of supporting local refining of petrol and the elimination of all the fraud associated with subsidy. The President was away when NNPCL inflicted yet another fuel price increase…
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