It is with immense delight, pleasure and feeling of gratitude to Allah that I once again address the press today on the state of the nation, a national conversation which I started in February in order to give my contributions towards addressing some of the critical challenges hobbling our dear nation.
As a patriotic political stakeholder with serious concerns for the peace, unity, progress and development of our great nation, I felt a compelling need to again lend my voice towards the ensuing national discourse aimed at finding solutions to the ensnaring and daunting challenges lurking in the shadows.
This is because sitting idly and watching Nigeria slide into state of anarchy will be a great disservice on my part.
In my last address, I had painstakingly enumerated some of the challenges besetting our progress as a nation. As a true patriot, I did not only grumble but suggested measures in addressing them.
I want to acknowledge here that although few of the concerns have been addressed, quite many of them have remained unattended to, making the suffering of Nigeria masses to multiply almost on a daily basis with the country having record inflationary trends and worsening misery index.
These challenges no doubt push the masses to settle on peaceful assembly as a last resort to ventilate their concerns and pent up anger for the unprecedented hunger and suffering in the land.
The latest stand by Civil Society Organizations and other key stakeholders to hold #Endhunger/Badgovernance protests as far as I’m concerned is already a success because it has for the first time in record prodded the leadership to become responsive to the yearnings and concerns of the masses and attend to the whims of the people.
It has precipitated swift actions, changes, and reforms by the government in deference to the agitations for good governance, which has been ongoing for decades without much success. In simple terms, the agitations have humbled us all to appreciate the sufferings of our citizens.
The agitations have forced the leadership at all levels to adopt some far reaching measures including tax waivers on imported food items, addressing the minimum wage conundrum, signing the minimum wage act into law and giving incentives to farmers and providing palliatives amongst many far reaching measures the governments took.
Based on the foregoing, I will, therefore, say without fear of contradiction that the proposed protest is already a huge success even without a single person coming out to the street for procession.
But while the agitators have succeeded in making the government to listen to the precarious living state of millions of Nigerians, the government for the first time seems to be working round the clock to avert what I may call the doomsday. So for me, the intricate interplay of forces have come to an equilibrium as both the demand and supply sides have become responsive to the compelling need for a shift in attitude for a sustainable solution in what has coalesced into a win-win situation for the people and government.
As I’m penning down this press statement, the national assembly and the executive arm of government are vigorously meeting separately to avert what many Nigerians see as a looming danger from happening as allowing the protest to go ahead also poses it’s risk because of its susceptibility for hijack by miscreants, brigands and unscrupulous elements. This has never happened in the recent history of our democracy.
I will, at this point, say the planned protest is no longer necessary and should be put on hold. I am appealing to the organizers of this protest to give this our listning government an opportunity to address the myriads of socio-economic challenges besetting the nation to bail the country from tipping overboard.
I will also, in this regard, urge the government to as a matter of expediency address;
1. The social insecurity bedeviling the land by proactively championing the state police, re-equiping the security personnel in terms of gadgets and welfare, and tackling the rampant corruption in security systems especially in procurement processes.
2. As I have mentioned in my first intervention in February, may I appeal to our president to consider suggestions emanating from Bretton Woods institutions, including IMF and World Bank, with maximum caution.
3. The federal government should also ensure the total rejuvenation of our national currency, the naira, considering the fact that Nigeria is an import dependent country.
4. The federal government should, as a matter of urgency, revive our grounded refineries, overhaul NNPCL and its sister agencies, and address the endemic corruption in the whole of the oil industry. A new set of management teams should be put in place to clean the stables.
5. The government should also incentivize the agric sector through a supplementary budget of one trillion naira for immediate passage by NASS for Bank of Agriculture to fund credit delivery to all the value chains in the Agricultural and Livestock sector.
6. In the same vein, another sum of two trillion naira to be approved by the national assembly as an additional supplementary budget to tackle security challenges nationwide, including the establishment of state police when passed into law.
7. Complete the implementation of “Oronsanye Report” already sterted by this administration to rationalize the MDAs and reduce the cost of governance.
8. I also call on our listening president to do all within his powers to establish an equilibrium between the pump price of petrol and electricity tariff to the income level of average Nigerians. It is also my humble opinion that the government should do everything to sanitize the administration of subsidy on petroleum products and electricity but not abolish the subsidies because of the important place of petrol and electricity in all economic value chains.
9. I want to use this singular opportunity to further appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to as a matter of critical urgency establish an Independent Judicial Commission of Enquiry with the mandate to carryout forensic investigation and recover all the funds that have been looted in the last 12 years especially as it concerns;
a. mismanagement of our oil and gas industry through outright theft and illegal deals in the sector.
b. mismanagement and looting of monies associated with “Ways and Means” and forex by the officials of CBN, commercial banks, financial institutions, and other government officials.
c. carry out forensic investigation on fraud associated with tax, VAT, and other revenues accruing to the federation , including tax waivers over the period of 12 years.
d. The government should enforce the laws declaring the use of foreign currencies as illegal tender and sanitise the regulations governing all forex parallel markets nationwide in order to check money laundering and its negative effects on the value of the Naira.
Thank you.
Sen. Abubakar Halilu Girei, mni.
July 31, 2024
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