If a job or task can only be completed in a month, considering the extent of personnel and facilities available; and a week is allowed for its completion, then we cannot blame the taskman or taskmen for failure to complete the job in a week.
What do Nigerians reasonably expect from President Tinubu within the next one year, or two, three, or four years? How industrialised is Nigeria now, or before this administration of President Tinubu? What do we expect in the South – west , South -south , South – east , North – west, North – central, and North – west? What are the responsibilities and capacities of the state and local governments in addressing the socio-economic problems of Nigeria?
It would take a book of more than 200 A4 pages to document the complex ramifications of the social, economic and political problems of Nigeria, all of which are interrelated and intersecting, In the education sector; at all levels, primary, secondary and tertiary, there are compound problems, qualitative and quantitative. The quality of the performances of the pupils and students, generally, are grossly unimpressive.
What are the causes of these grossly poor performances of the pupils and students, generally, in Nigeria? Is the cause poor infrastructure, poor remuneration or quality of the teachers, poor socio-economic conditions of the Nigerian people, or a combination of all these? What can President Tinubu do about the problem of mass unemployment? When shall we have adequate generation of electricity and its proper distribution system?
With the expected metering payment for electricity consumption, would the very many poor and extremely poor people be able to pay? What and what would determine the appropriate rate of the billing? How do we get the revenue to pay back the interests and capitals of the loans to be unavoidably obtained and invested further in the generation and distribution facilities of electricity? Is it the private sector and or the public sector involved in the generation and or distribution of electricity that would be responsible for the repayment of the loans? Is President Tinubu, with the ministers responsible to find answers to these questions, without inputs from the private sector?
What of the transport sector? What are the responsibilities of the state and local governments in the transport sector? On the transport sector and other sectors of the economy, it has been estimated, by international development institutions, that additional sum of between 70 and 100 billion U.S. dollars, annually, and for more than 30 years, is needed for infrastructure development of Nigeria. In the security sector, four past Inspectors – General of Police of Nigeria had said that the whole of the national budget was not enough to properly police Nigeria in this modern world, and former President Buhari had said that only God can effectively man the northern borders of Nigeria.
All the foregoings are some of the reasons why President Tinubu cannot be adjudged, even in the year 2027, to have failed Nigeria; because it is improbable that he would have appreciably solved the many complex problems of Nigeria within the next four years, unless there would have been humongous foreign interventions.
And if it is indeed true that without devolution of powers of the Nigerian state, as in true federalism, we can not have socio-economic development of Nigeria, which President Tinubu has long before his election as President, agitated for; then, we can not reasonably blame President Tinubu for failure to achieve any meaningful development of Nigeria.
The North – west and the North – east have together 139 representatives in the house of representatives of Nigeria , with the North – west having 91 and the North – east, 48; out of the whole number of 360, which whole number amounts to an average of 60 for each of all the six geopolitical zones of the country. Accordingly, we cannot have any amendment to the constitution of Nigeria, if a minority, the combination of two of the zones, North. -west and North – east , having 139 votes, more than one – third, 120, of the whole, 360 does not approve, as, at least, two thirds of the whole votes is required to pass an amendment bill . We can not blame President Tinubu for failure.
What of the problem of the proliferation of unplanned urban settlements and the resulting dysfunctionality, causing inhibitions to socio-economic development; particularly location of industries and investments, and provision of security? What of the issue of poor minimum wage and wages generally, in the public and private sectors? What should be the proper minimum wage of a professor in the Nigerian universities?
We have wasted our opportunities, as a nation, in the past sixty years, to develop Nigeria. We have wasted the time and the huge crude oil deposits, the other mineral resources, and the huge human resources. We cannot blame President Tinubu for these.
We should blame our past leaders. Increased pains are immediate concomitants of already bad socio-economic systems and situations. Even when petroleum fuel was selling at two hundred naira per litre in Nigeria, as compared to the current price of more than six hundred naira, Nigerians were still having socio-economic pains.
And if President Tinubu had not removed the subsidy from the price of petroleum fuel, the country’s finances would have grossly worsened by now, because at the advent of the administration, 96% percent of our national revenue was being used to pay interests on our national debts. Without subsidy removal, at this critically bad financial circumstances, Nigeria would probably have gone bankrupt.
How, then would we have gotten the money to repair the refineries, for instance?
It remains very sad that a few persons could have been allowed to buy critical foreign exchange, the US Dollar, from our meagre earnings and reserve, and loans. At hugely subsidised rate of 400 naira, to resell for personal gains, every day, at the rate of about 600 naira. This is with the rumour that even our national legislators were involved in this racketeering. This was evil, gross theft.
And President Tinubu was right to have promptly stopped this heinous policy. This is one of the reasons why we need devolution of powers from the central government, so called federal government; such that we may seriously consider that the central government does not continue to monopolise authority over the management of our foreign earnings, jointly owned by the central and state governments. This authority should be shared with the state governments. We sure need fundamental reforms of the Nigerian system in general. You cannot blame President Tinubu for this failure.
Not until we have the industrial capabilities to manufacture the technological products, capital and consumable, of various kinds being now perennially imported into the country, the Nigerian economy would continue to be in the doldrums, under the humongous pressures of globalised industrial revolution, with the economy continuing to be financed with foreign loans, thereby mortgaging our national resources , for the payment of interests on unsustainable loans, amounting to sale of the national national resources. This is why President Tinubu would not be reasonably adjudged, in the years leading to 2027, to have failed.
We cannot have the required breakthroughs, the required industrial capabilities within the next four years, ending in 2027, except we have divine intervention soon.
Akande:[email protected]
07043321950 Ibadan, Nigeria.
