Competing policy issues are begging for attention and government is fast losing gravity. Yet the polity is reeling under by an amalgam of economic reforms the Bola Tinubu government has unleashed all at once; citizens are getting disoriented.

Former Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, once quipped; that government business is not such that must be completed at one go, otherwise, the previous leader would have finished all the work and there won’t be anything left for the next set of leaders to accomplish.

Simply put, strategic leadership targets what is achievable at a time and what to leave for the future, so that nobody burns out. Right now, millions of citizens are choking in the name of economic reforms.

The Central Bank Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, has been up and about, attempting to slow the downward plunge of the naira. More of battling symptoms than real ailment. Government is issuing threats to manufacturers of commodities, but is sluggish on the energy crisis that drives inflation.

Financial crime fighters are chasing foot soldiers at parallel forex markets, but are unable to tackle the politicians and tycoons who supply the markets. Just the same way government is blaming middle men who go into farms to buy produce, without fixing roads and logistics that drive up food prices.

Now, Vice President Kashim Shettima claims enemies and saboteurs are behind food shortage in the country. In January 2023, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), alerted that nearly 25 million Nigerians would be at risk of hunger between June and August of that year.

In November 2023, FAO again advised that 26.5 million Nigerians will grapple with food insecurity in the course of 2024. But Vice President Shettima, who advertised as an expert on food matters, in the course of 2023 election campaigns would rather see enemies and saboteurs.

The appeal is for government to stop this fire brigade approach to solving problems and tackle real issues. The economy had not been good in the last eight years. Inflation was on a steady rise; there was corruption in government.

Manufacturers could not get forex to import raw materials and expand production. Farmlands and rural communities from where food is supplied to urban centres became unsafe due to activities of bandits and terrorists. The abandonment of farms meant that with time, hunger and misery would become widespread.

President Bola Tinubu has however expanded poverty and misery in the land, through a rash of rent seeking policies that have little thought for vulnerable groups. The fuel subsidy removal and the floating of the naira are the propellers of the deteriorating economic situation in the country.

Now that we’re here and the hardship induced by unpleasant economic policies has grown into protests, which has now approached levels of chaos, let it not be said that this government lacks the ingenuity to contain the issues and pull the country back from avoidable turmoil.

Not with fire brigade palliatives that don’t address root causes and don’t get to millions of citizens, but in concrete deliverables terms. Once upon a time, there was a Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), that enjoyed relative applause, even in an era when there were no standard procurement rules.

Some commentators canvass that the government should take a break to evaluate and review the impact of the policies. Extreme positions like those of Arewa Economic Forum demand that government reinstate subsidy and remove governors from the palliative chain. Economists are better put to deliberate on what is possible at this critical juncture. Governors are however crucial in the federalism chain and cannot be wished away.

What is helpful on a general note is for the president not to assume he has all the answers. He should admit that the willy-nilly manner he took away subsidy on petrol, without even settling down in office to get stakeholders input was hasty and ill-advised.

He was driven by excessive love for taxes, without a thought for hapless citizens who now bear the brunt of his petrol tax. He was quick to act without waiting to fix the refineries. Even the December 2023 date promised to get them working did not materialise. Now we’re told that rehabilitation at the Port Harcourt Refinery has just reached 80 percent. Too many false promises.

A good number of those who hurried to hail Tinubu’s fuel subsidy removal speech are now talking double. They say though the policy was good, the president should have put forward concrete platforms to mitigate the fallout. Too late.

Now that the fallout has cascaded into socio-economic tension across the country, to the extent that influential royal fathers are sending veiled and open disapprovals to Mr President, it is time for government to begin a review. As they say, a hungry man is an angry man. Those who are countering these messages should refrain from engaging in disdainful poetics.

Before the elections, Tinubu met with segments of geo-political leaders and assured them he could do the job. He did everything to appease the North, including ceding the vice president’s slot to the Muslim North. Now that he has not delivered the prosperity he promised, but has instead afflicted the people with unprecedented socio-economic distress, the language should be persuasive, not corrosive. Campaigns are over. Otherwise, when another election comes and new MoUs are drafted, tougher clauses will be added.

As for other matters, regarding which group has afflicted Nigeria most with poverty, underdevelopment and insecurity, it is hoped that this government will endorse a rearrangement that will extract accountability from all leaders.

A properly defined federation will be of benefit to all regions and those who have abundance of young population will reap the advantages when they deploy those hands to the farms. After all, the regional governments did fairly well for themselves.

For now, we’re in a democracy and people should be allowed to express themselves. Those who promised them better life during campaigns should surrender themselves for account. That’s exactly the feedback we’re getting from those who have commendably voiced their dissatisfaction in the open.

Soon, it will be one year and this government will be expected to present its scorecard. If fuel subsidy remains, the savings will be in multiple trillions of naira by May 29, 2024. More money is shared among the three tiers of government. At the end of the day, they will be asked to account for all revenues they have collected.

In some states, some local government areas have not felt a touch of this increased revenue. Some have not taken advantage of the outgoing dry season to upgrade feeder roads.
It is alleged that after each FAAC allocation, some political leaders convert their share to U.S. dollar for enhanced value. It is the job of security and intelligence agencies to get to the root of these rumours, instead of chasing Bureau de Charge operators along Abuja streets in fruitless physical show of force.

It’s the same way drug couriers are arrested daily but the menace has not slowed down. The real kingpins in the enterprise are often hard to pick. Those are the ones to go after.
When the Central Bank Governor, along with the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edu, and others in the economic team appeared before the joint Senate Committee on the economy, the president’s men appeared flummoxed, in what was clearly not their battle, in the sense that they and the Senators who expected them to do magic knew where the problems are coming from.

The lawmakers demanded explanation on how the naira had taken a beaten from N750 to a staggering N1,555 rating with the dollar in just eight months. Cardoso told them Nigerians must moderate their demand for dollars to stabilise the FX market. He added that in 10 years, Nigerians spent all of $40billion on education and healthcare abroad.

The import of that statement was not lost on intuitive listeners, who wondered how the CBN governor would explain this dilemma to Mr. President, a man of high taste for foreign travels and private holidays. Clearly, it is not Cardoso’s dilemma but that of President Tinubu, to exemplify this point to governors, NASS members and other politicians.

The bulk of the FX that is stashed away to procure luxury lifestyle in world’s most expensive cities are traceable to politically exposed persons.

For instance, in November 2022, a Federal High Court in Abuja, ordered an interim forfeiture of 40 landed properties belonging to a former lawmaker who is serving prison term in the United Kingdom, Ike Ekweremadu. The forfeiture included three properties in the United States, two in the United Kingdom, nine in Dubai (UAE), 15 in the Federal Capital Territory.

Ekweremadu’s case is just a tip of the iceberg, of how politicians have helped themselves to resources that ordinarily belong to their constituents. The guy plied his trade in the wrong place and the UK government jailed him fortransacting in human organ. Otherwise, it might be difficult to pry into his real estate acquisition. He wasn’t a governor, just a lawmaker.
So, the lawmakers who harangued Cardoso and his economic team knew they were just bluffing. Some of them have offences pending with the EFCC and some don’t spend their holidays at home.
President Tinubu has a duty to rescue the local currency by ensuring that persons in government do not have undue access to public funds. Let politicians and public servants stop investing in other markets. Let them go on holidays at local resorts.Let them train their children at home.

Blocking online currency traders and speculators is like picking petty drug peddlers while the barons lounge in exotic hideouts. Let this government stop chasing shadows. Chase the real men in government and set good example.

Most importantly, let the president review his overall governance strategy. It is convoluted!