Nothing creates bitterness and disillusionment in a democracy as promises made but not kept. A ledge of such deceitfulness by the Tinubu government litters all over every sector of our national life. Two years will come full circle on May 29, when Bola Ahmed Tinubu was sworn in as Nigerian President. The clouds of controversy that trailed how he won the 2023 presidential poll would have cleared long ago had he committed himself to inclusive governance, where all Nigerians will feel a sense of belonging.
Two years of Tinubu presidency has been all about badly thought- out policies, lies and spin.The President remains insensitive to the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians. Nowhere has his administration compiled a more dismal record than in the handling of the economy and security of lives and property. The administration’s performance in these two critical areas, bad at the start, with ill-digested “subsidy is gone”, has grown progressively worse. Inflation, unemployment, cost of living, and many more, continue to worsen. Nigeria is now the ‘poverty capital’ of the world. The naira is now rated as world’s “4th worst currency” in value terms.
The national debt and prime interest rate have ballooned to record highs, with a record high deficit in our balance of trade. Productivity has fallen, and there’s fear that recession is imminent. Rarely do you hear about governance anymore, which is the primary reason a president is elected. The preoccupation right now is how to grab more power and manipulate a one-party state for selfish interests. It’s, therefore, not unkind to say that what is going on in the country today is one of the darkest chapters in our political history.
That’s what happens when politicians seek power for just power sake. Like Muhammadu Buhari did, no hope has been ‘renewed’ since Tinubu came to power. Everywhere you look, pessimism has supplanted hope. Tinubu presidency has inflicted extreme hardship on Nigerians.
Together, Tinubu and Buhari can fittingly be described as two peas in a pod. Nothing different to choose between them. Their only difference is in their name. What politics cannot unite, it divides. Both men have outsize egos.
Trading blames for their poor performance has become their common denominator. It’s a way to express their sense of helplessness in the duties they were expected to do. And you ask: Between Buhari and Tinubu, who is better or worse? Both are like that film comedy, titled, “Horrible Bosses”. On a state visit to Anambra recently(May 8), President Tinubu claimed that his government inherited a “near-insolvent treasury, a decade old monster of unsustainable multiple subsidies, a chaotic economic structure in 2023”.
Of course, Tinubu was referring to Muhammadu Buhari. This is the strongest public acknowledgement that Tinubu has made in two years about the challenges he inherited from However, he bragged that as “we tamed the Atlantic in Lagos”, many of the economic monsters have been tackled”. Note this: Tinubu may have hit Buhari hard, but what he said in Anambra state was not original to him. It was a script written by his National Security Adviser(NSA) Nuhu Ribadu. Ribadu, you may recall, had on November 13, 2023, told the military high command at the Chief of Defence Intelligence Annual Conference, in Abuja, that President Tinubu inherited a “near-empty treasury” from Buhari.
Don’t blame Tinubu or Ribadu for putting Buhari at the end of the finger of blame over the present economic crisis of the country. Buhari, as President, did the same thing five years ago, when he blamed Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan for Nigeria’s economic woes, saying his administration “inherited a skewed, and near destruction of the economy”. He also attacked Obasanjo and Jonathan, saying they don’t not have the “impudence” to criticize his administration’s policies. Playing the blame game is what weak leaders who have run out of ideas for solutions confronting their country do.
Anyone with a fair understanding of the inner workings of power, its nature, the complexity of ambition, and the role that the greater good can play in the making of a leader, will have a nuanced picture of how Muhammadu Buhari almost ruined Nigerian economy. Under his watch, Nigeria embarked on a borrowing spree. He couldn’t account for the loans from multilateral institutions. Under Buhari’s leadership, insecurity assumed a life of its own. It has gotten worse now. In almost two years in office, President Tinubu has made matters worse, and like Buhari did, he’s blaming everything that went wrong on his predecessor.
As already mentioned, Buhari heaped his inability to govern on Jonathan and Obasanjo. He wasted precious time he would have used to govern, passing the buck. Tinubu has embarked on the same fruitless journey. This is why: All of them see the presidency as a prize to be won, not as a duty to perform. Once that goal is achieved, nothing else matters. Just as Buhari showed ineptitude and unawareness of mind on how his policies damaged the economy, Tinubu lacks the presence of mind on what should be done to revive a stagnant economy. Again, one is compelled to ask: Is Nigeria cursed or are we the cause? The answer is simple: poor leadership.
Overall, when you compare and contrast Tinubu’s two-year presidency and that of his predecessors, especially that of Buhari, it’s interesting to ask: Is Nigeria better or worse now than Tinubu met it? Are lives and livelihood of Nigerians better now or worse? Of course, opinions will differ, there’s a likelihood that history will not be kind to both of them for unleashing immense hardship on Nigerians. Indeed, if Buhari was King Solomon, Tinubu is his ‘son’, Rehoboam.
If Buhari was the instrument used by seen and unseen forces to unleash pain and chastised Nigerians with whips, Tinubu’s policies have increased our burdens, and literally, whipping Nigerians with scorpions. You can feel the pain everywhere. Do the comparison yourself based on your personal experience. Truth is, whatever Buhari made worse for Nigeria and its citizens, Tinubu presidency is working overtime to make much worse in scope. In context, it’s fair enough to say that just like the Buhari era, Tinubu presidency carries as much baggage resembling an ocean liner.
Don’t look at the mass defections to the ruling APC. It’s borne out of fear of the coming of a ‘strong man’, a possible tyrant in 2027. But, we have gone through worse case scenario before. Wasn’t late Gen. Sani Abacha like that when almost everybody was endorsing him to continue? Today, nothing seems the same in Nigeria anymore. As historians will tell us, without a vision beyond a leader’s own selfish agenda, a leader is paralyzed immediately he gets the power he desperately wanted. Some of us did warn in 2015 when Buhari embarked on his self-destructive ambition, but it was not heeded. The same thing is happening today. No lesson learnt.