This headline reminds me of a similar question that the late Ronald Reagan asked American voters when he was seeking their mandate in the 1980 presidential election. Reagan was the Republican presidential candidate. He was running against the then incumbent President Jimmy Carter of the Democratic Party. Carter was seeking re-election. But the odds were heavily against him. America was in crisis. Despair had supplanted hope.
Four years of Carter’s presidency had come under intense scrutiny. America was drifting dangerously. A new leadership was needed. Reagan said he was the man to stop the drift and make better things happen again for America. Though this is not election time for the office of the President of Nigeria, sometimes, a question like this is asked in every democracy, especially when the government in power has not lived up to expectations. Such a question becomes inevitable when the present leadership has failed to provide solutions to the problems confronting the country and its people. It is a legitimate question. That’s exactly what most Nigerians are asked today: Are you better off now than you were seven months ago that President Bola Tinubu was sworn in? Only a few would answer in the affirmative. That’s why the tempers of the time demand a different approach to leadership in Nigeria, a leadership that listens, a leadership that doesn’t lie to its citizens. How many Nigerians except the rich knew that yesterday was Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ? How many families (again apart from the wealthy) were able to celebrate the season with joy? Only a few could afford basic staple foods like rice and garri or even noodles for their kids. Chicken and turkey are now luxury items on the menu of the poor.
A few parents could afford to take their family members to recreation parks this yuletide season. Poverty has squeezed the majority of Nigerians to a corner. Only a few know where their next meal will come from. Naira scarcity has worsened an already bad situation. Will they blame it on Godwin Emefiele, the disgraced former hovernor of the Central Bank of Nigeria? Don’t be surprised if you see fresh a charge that Emefiele in detention is responsible for the present naira scarcity, and indeed for every pregnancy miscarriage by women. That’s how bad things have become – shifting blames to perceived political enemies. As we await 2024 with dread, this much is clear as this wild year is finally winding down like a music box. These are the pieces that make us think the most of 2023 with fear and trembling. Every passing day, Nigeria looks very much like a country that is jinxed on the leadership index, very much like a company that has filed for bankruptcy or receivership. Nigeria today is like an exploration of “malaise,” a word Jimmy Carter (39th U.S. President, now 99 years) discovered in the summer of 1979 to describe the failings of the American people. Note this: this malaise had little to do with the personal lives or capacities or even the personal hopes and fears of Americans.
Rather, it was an expression of a widespread loss of faith in the competence of the great institutions in our society, particularly in the competence of the institutions of government and the men entrusted with running the affairs of the country. In my view, that is exactly where we are today in Nigeria. Has the judiciary not failed us? The trust and confidence in that critical institution charged with the dispensation of justice without fear or favour is at all-time low right now. Justice now only favours those who can offer the highest price. Besides, never in the history of our judiciary has the Chief Justice of Nigeria appointed his nephew (Lateef Ganiyu) as justice of the Court of Appeal, his son (Olukayode Ariwoola Jnr) as judge of the Federal High Court, and his brother (Adebayo Ariwoola) as auditor of the National Judicial Council (NJC). CJN Olukayode Ariwoola has just done that. He may have secured his name in record books, fittingly in the Guinness World Records. No wonder, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, recently described the current Supreme Court as the “worst” in his 45 years of legal practice. It stinks. What about the electoral umpire, INEC, charged with ensuring fair, credible and transparent dishonesty? It has lost complete public confidence, and a blanket of suspicion surrounds the reputation of its leadership. What about the political leadership? When Muhammadu Buhari left office, millions of Nigerians heaved a huge sigh of relief, “good riddance”, not knowing that kakistoracy, the worst government by the worst people, has arrived. Every thing it inherited it has made even worse.
This is an interesting, fascinating lesson for any one who has taken keen interest in our politics and leadership. There’s no character, no competence – two prime virtues that a good leader must possess. Competence has lost its value. Competence is getting things done. Today, that’s far gone. There’s no empathy between this government and the majority of Nigerian people. Some say it’s a “state capture”. In just seven months, the sophisticated apparatchiks of government have been fully mobilised and thrown into a battle against the minds of the people. Never since the present democratic dispensation have we seen such uncaring, nepotistic government. Rather than get better, things may get even worse in 2024. Mark my words. They may have captured Nigeria and Nigerians, but they cannot capture God. That should be our consolation. The question remains: Why is it that every successive government in Nigeria is worse than the one it succeeded? This is one question historians/researchers will likely provide answers to in due time.
For now, it’s not unkind to say that this government has wrecked havoc on Nigerians and destroyed lives and livelihoods. As one commentator said recently, the “degree of insensitivity of the Tinubu presidency is so shocking that whatever he says should not be taken seriously anymore”. In the most fundamental sense, nothing has changed. Hope has not been renewed. Rather, it has been dashed. Clearly, President Tinubu has misled Nigerians that he is out to ‘Renew Hope’, reboot and expand the economy by at least 6 percent a year, lift barriers to investments, create jobs, unify the exchange rate, while also tackling insecurity. Yes, Tinubu inherited a struggling economy with record debt, shortages of foreign exchange (FX), a weak naira currency, high inflation, and epileptic power supply. The exchange rate unification has since gone beserk, inflation is at all-time high (28.2% in November), foreign companies are exiting Nigeria in droves, driving unemployment higher than he inherited, debt burden is ballooning, while borrowing spree continues.
Truth is, this President has since abandoned his campaign promises to Nigerians. These include: to foster a “new society based on shared prosperity, tolerance, compassion and the unwavering commitment to treating every citizen with equal respect”. Today it is only for the rich. Tax the poor to feed the wealthy. Tinubu also promised to manufacture, create and invest more of the goods and services we require, while making Nigeria a nation of creators, not of consumers. Today, we are still importing more and exporting less, and expanding other nations’ economies through purchase of luxury cars for federal legislators. His administration has weakened the national currency rather than strengthened it. With all of this, who says our politics and politicians are not a fun to follow? According to the World Bank, Nigeria’s economic output, measured by Gross Domestic Product(GDP), has shrunk by 10 percent between 2015 and 2023. What’s the price of a bag of rice and garri between now and 2015? What’s the cost of 12.5kg of cooking gas today? What about a litre of petrol now and what it was seven months ago? What’s the cost of a loaf of bread today? How many hours do we get power supply a day? Is that how to renew hope?
If you have read Charles Ford, author of: “Lies, the Psychology of Deceit”, you would understand the playbook from which this government and its officials take their briefs from. For them, lies don’t have a lifespan. As Ford explains, for such people, lying to gain advantage is like the difference between lying as a legal issue and a moral one. It comes close to St. Augustine’s number 5 Category of Lies, that is, a lie told to externalise blame. That’s exactly what we are hearing from government officials each time they strut the stage to defend some of the President’s ill-digested policies. Altogether, the mood of the country today is that of extreme anguish. Frustration and disillusionment have set in. And the pain that this administration has inflicted on Nigerians is an unforgettable lesson in power.
This is the message: What a leader does when he’s trying to get power is not necessarily what he does after he had got it. As historian Robert A. Caro captures it, “no one can lead who does not first acquire power, and no leader can be great who does not know how to use power”. But the combination of the two skills are rare. That’s what President Tinubu has shown us in the last seven months in power.
Research has proved that in leadership positions, whether in politics or corporate organisation, problem arises the very moment a leader begins to confuse his own ego with the destiny of the country and that of the people. The will, or willfulness, that such a leader brings into the running of affairs, can put the country in crisis, and sometimes, could consume the leader. That’s where Nigeria is now. The truth is that every government in power is judged by the success or failure of the promises that it made on assumption of office. Today, prices of food items are beyond the reach of average Nigerians. The country has been polarised more than ever before on ethics lines. Our debt profile has increased four folds more than what Buhari left behind. Nigeria’s misery index is horrifying. It makes the mind to squirm. Yet the president has said, unashamedly, that Nigerian in a better condition than it was seven months ago. Today, all indices that measure a safe and vibrant country, are in negative territory. It’s indeed, lamentable that our democratic journey so far has not brought the much-needed improvement in governance. Governance is fast becoming taking care of personal interests and that of cronies, at public expense. Let the story of Nero, one of history’s most sadistic and cruelest leaders who was reported to be fiddling while Rome was on fire, not become Nigeria’s burden. It’s all about leadership crisis. Tinubu needs a new approach to governance. His presidency should not be like a dagger in the chest.