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From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
The Future Nigeria Movement (FNM) has tasked President Bola Tinubu to show practical commitment towards realizing his highpoint at the just concluded 78th United Nations General Assembly.
National Leader of the group, Livingstone Wechie, gave the charge in an eight-point agenda taken by FNM in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Sunday.
The group stated that the positions of Tinubu at UNGA reaffirmed that Nigeria and Africa in general, are politically and economically sick, and tasked the Nigerian president to translate his statesmanly speech to alleviating the sufferings of the citizens.
He said: “Just as he advocated for equal commitment for Africa’s development similar to the Marshall Plan of 1948 for the rebuilding of postwar Europe, it is recommended that Africa led by Nigeria under President Bola Tinubu should boldly assert themselves, harnessing our resources without falling for the fiscal and diplomatic manipulations of the global West for our radical development.
“His position is summarized in his assertion that broken promises, unfair treatment and outright exploitation from abroad have exacted a heavy toll on Africa’s ability to progress. It is pointed to the need for actionable engagement by African States to severe from the age-long foothold of the global West as further espoused by other Presidents from Africa.
“The federal government must start taking far-reaching decisions on itself that eases the burden on the citizens and not otherwise.
“To this end it is important for the statesmanly speech by President Bola Tinubu to be translated from the script realm to the street realm. Ostensibly, President Tinubu has a load of actionable institutional policies to be put in place at the home front to actualize the type of system that his speech advocates for.
The group emphasized that there must be a deliberate commitment to deal with institutional corruption and economic inequality in Nigeria, so as to strengthen his base to confront the injustices of the global West.
Wechie said: “He must remain firm like his Kenyan counterpart to demand a new global financial structure that gives Africa an equal stake with every other nation including Africa’s single currency plan because Africa looks up to Nigeria to take the lead.
“One of the factors that the president must initiate is the reassurance for Nigerians to have confidence in the Nigerian project again. This is in the face of the raging and waning confidence as a result of institutional brutality against human and economic rights in Nigeria.”
According to Wechie, the economic climate has pushed Nigerians into mental depression and the government must take extraordinary measures beyond the promises of a “Light at the end of the tunnel” approach to give Nigerians the deserved relief.
He said: “Arising from UNGA, President Tinubu must firmly confront and address the institutional high-handedness that frustrate local economic and entrepreneurship growth efforts. This also bothers on judicial, regulatory and security conundrums.
“The FNM has insisted that President Bola Tinubu must place all his appointees on target. This administration must be target-centred to give room for assessment and evaluation in line with the renewed hope agenda.
“Recently, the Minister of Interior gave a target to clear the backlogs of International Passports and he achieved it among other innovations. We have seen similar actions by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and that of the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management among a few taking bold and drastic steps within their jurisdiction.
“The President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration must consider as a lesson from UNGA to genuinely democratize the economic potentials of this country by equitably distributing and liberalizing our sea ports across the country, taking full control and regulation of the mining sectors as well as prioritizing actionable policies to give full life to manufacturing in Nigeria. Until the cartels and the bottlenecks are destroyed, the economic downturn may know no end as reflective in the Naira free falls.
“Nigeria’s foreign policy trust on rebuilding our economy must be the basis for our engagement with the global West.”
