A Professor of Social Ethics at Boston University, Nimi Wariboko, has said that President Bola Tinubu has not produced any result so far to show that he came prepared into office.
The author and investment banker, who spoke on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande aired on Channels Television on Friday, lamented that the President, who won the February 2023 presidential election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had no laid-down plan to cushion the economic effects of the petrol subsidy removal and other policies.
“Eight months into a government system is too long not to have a plan,” he said.
Wariboko described the current administration’s policies as “knee-jerk reactions”, saying that the government of the day lacks vision.
“There’s no point complaining about (ex-President Muhammadu) Buhari. There’s no point complaining about the goodness or the expectation of Buhari. Now, the ball is in his (Tinubu’s) court and he has to do it because he said it was his turn,” Wariboko said.
“People keep saying he was prepared, he’s been a politician, but the test of everything is the result we are seeing and I don’t think we have seen any results so far that would justify that accolade being heaped upon him.
“The Bible says: If your strength fails you on the day of adversity. it is small. I always tell people that: If your strength fails you on the day of adversity, it was not there. It’s a simple case; we are not seeing the result, we are not even seeing a clear vision of where the country is going,” he said.
Nigeria is battling rising inflation, food inflation, forex crisis, economic hardship and high cost of living occasioned by the removal of petrol subsidy, attracting protests in parts of the country.
The Nigerian naira has seen a dip in the last nine months since the Tinubu administration collapsed the foreign exchange window. The naira experienced an all-time low, falling from about N700/$1 last May to over N1500/$1 at the moment.
Similarly, the price per litre of Premium Motor Spirit also known as petrol jumped over 350% from N184 last May to over N600 at the moment, depending on the location.
The country’s wobbling economy has been a source of worry to economists, opposition parties, labour unions and civil society organisations who continue to call on the Tinubu administration to fulfil its campaign promises. The Federal Government has reeled out some measures in the last few weeks but Nigerians continue to grapple with the weight of high cost of living.
Similarly, a former Vice-Chairman of the APC in the North-West, Salihu Lukman, accused President Tinubu of making impulsive decisions.
Lukman, a former Director General of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, made the allegation in a statement on Saturday.
He also said since the assumption of office of the President on May 29, 2023, “major policy decisions have been taken impulsively without clearly defined plans, at least not shared with Nigerians”.
“Three good examples are the issue of removal of subsidy on petroleum products, floating the exchange rate of the naira, and sanction against Niger Republic following the coup of July 26, 2023,” Lukman said.
“Arguably, with respect to all these issues, it is as if government first announce decisions before beginning to think in terms of what needs to be done to manage the consequences that followed,” he stated.
Lukman said that had the government of President Tinubu come up with an articulated policy plan oriented to implement both the APC manifesto and Renewed Hope 2023, the government may have saved itself the problem of limiting itself to only reacting to challenges produced by its policies.
He alleged that the President has completely insulated himself from all structures of the party as a few party leaders have access to him.
“From the time of former President Buhari to today’s President Asiwaju Tunubu era, the orientation of government and party politics is that the President is omnipotent, who no one can question. This has continued in a worse form under President Asiwaju Tinubu largely because at least under former President Buhari, he never invokes his omnipotent status to nullify subsisting agreement within the party.
“Interestingly, President Asiwaju Tinubu who is expected to be more democratic and progressive as well, one of the first exercise of his omnipotent leadership is to nullify zoning agreement within the party by moving the position of National Chairman out of North-Central to North-West with hardly any consultation with party leaders in both the two zones,” he stated.
Lukman questioned the future of the APC with the party increasingly becoming a closed shop with virtually all its organs demobilised and the omnipotent status of the President strengthened. He also wondered about the implication of an envisioned progressive party producing progressive governments in reverse gear.
“Is it a question of leaders becoming indifferent to the electoral fortunes of the party? Does the fact of being indifferent to the electoral fortune of the party also mean being unconcerned about the future of democracy in Nigeria?” he asked.
He said what Nigerians are getting today was at variance with what was promised, noting that it was most disturbing that the current economic hardship is happening during the first term of President Tinubu, raising the question of whether the President was not interested in second term.
“If he is interested in second term, why is he managing affairs of government like a military dictator, shutting down the structures of the party and talking down on citizens like a philosopher king who has absolute knowledge of what will produce possible happiness for citizens?” he queried.
