Mr President, my advice to you this morning is on how to strengthen your government, win the support of Nigerians, and overcome the opposition forces. Strains of what I am about to say can be found in what I have written in the last 62 weeks in this column. This is merely a consolidation of those strains in ways that can be more meaningful to you.
Mr President, you would recall that you were among those who labelled President Jonathan as “clueless”. But even in his cluelessness, he managed to burnish his administration by the quality of his cabinet. It was not an all-star cabinet but there were a few distinguished Nigerians who helped to nudge the administration in a promising direction within the mined neoliberal milieu.
They included Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the National Economy, and Akinwumi Adesina who was in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. They made a significant difference. The economy was rebased, the naira was relatively stable, and above all, there was an atmosphere of unstifled freedom because no one was harassed for calling the president names.
With hindsight, President Jonathan’s disposition was quintessential humility in governance. Under him, even though not left-inclined, we resisted imperialism’s attempt to impose woke ideology that sought to mainstream LGBT culture in the Nigerian cultural space. To be sure, these were quality moments in the Jonathan administration.
The first suggestion is to reshuffle your cabinet to bring in credible and passionate Nigerians who can advance your renewed hope agenda. The “End Bad Governance protest” against your administration was engendered by your impetuous policy decisions flowing from the Bretton Woods Institutions.
As Jacob Lewis of Washington State University put it, “The removal of fuel subsidies and the removal of the economic peg between the Nigerian naira and the U.S. dollar have sent the Nigerian economy into a tailspin.” With better managers and zero tolerance for corruption, the Nigerian economy can be better managed. I recall the emphasis that well-meaning Nigerians have placed on transparency and accountability in government.
Under the Obasanjo administration, Retired Lt. General Theophilus Danjuma and Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte, co-chairing the Northern and Southern Minorities Forum in 2005, declared corruption as antithetical to national growth and development. This was again emphasised by the Financial Times of London when it stated in reaction to the End Bad Governance protest that “Corruption needs to be tackled.
It does not help that Tinubu’s own vast wealth is not easy to decipher, nor that his poverty minister was suspended for alleged diversion of funds, something she denies. It does not help either that the state is implicated in the wholesale theft of oil, depriving the nation’s coffers of billions of dollars. Tinubu should use all his political guile to staunch the flow”.
The same editorial, titled “Shock therapy alone will not cure Nigeria’s economic ills” advised on bringing quality human resources on board. Here is an excerpt: “As things stand, the state lacks either the capacity or the probity to administer such a scheme. Tinubu needs to fix that urgently. With a few exceptions, his cabinet is full of lightweights who owe their jobs to political patronage, not to expertise. Technocratic talent exists in abundance. It must be marshalled.”
I had advised much earlier that you commit class suicide and side with the Nigerian people. As regards personal comfort, before exiting this world, you would never starve again. Take your interest out of public policy and truly serve the Nigerian people. It is the only way you can enshrine your legacy in the minds of every Nigerian and perhaps with a guaranteed place in history.
Since your policies are dictated by the Bretton Woods, you must have a compass to negotiate the mined field of neoliberalism. Baba Omojola and Akin Fadahunsi of blessed memory, whom you know well, taught me political economy. They always emphasised that policy is about people, not about things, put differently, it is human relations, not the relations of things.
So, faced with policy choices, always pose the question: what is there for the governed or the people, the repository of popular sovereignty? If you follow this path within a year, the public perception of your government will be positive.
Truly, Mr President, with the wise counsel I have marshalled above, it would be easy to confront the gathering bands of opposition forces that include regular political actors such as Peter Obi, Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 presidential elections; John Oyegun, former Chairman, All Progressives Congress; Abubakar Malami, former Attorney-General of the Federation; Nasir El-Rufai, former Kaduna State Governor; Liyel Imoke, former Cross River Governor; Rotimi Amaechi, former Rivers State Governor and Minister of Transportation; Aminu Tambuwal, former House Speaker and Governor, Sokoto State, Kashim Imam, a prominent northeast politician; and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar among others. They would be heavily tasked and perhaps labour in vain. I am by no means dismissing the role of opposition.
The latter is of the substance of democracy, especially those that fall within the conceptual ambit of loyal opposition that is based on the pursuit of national consensus for the development of the country. Presently, what we see are the bashers of national fortune; importers of banditry; and looters of the national treasury largely driven by the quest for filthy lucre.
Prof Akhaine is with the Department of Political Science, Lagos State University.
