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My people have a saying that it is from the smell of fart that one feels the taste of excrement. The signs of what to expect in the new administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu came during his inauguration on May 29, 2023. Nigerians listened attentively for a message that would give them renewed hope. What they got was a thunderbolt, “fuel subsidy is gone,” he announced in his inaugural speech.
This created instantaneous inflation. Prices of fuel immediately jumped from about N185 a litre to as high as N600 per litre. In some places, it went up to N1,000 per litre. The cost of transportation went up as well. Prices of some other commodities started moving upwards. The already impoverished masses became confused and traumatized. Not knowing what to do, they resigned to fate.
It is not that removal of fuel subsidy is a bad idea. It is not. But, the removal should have been gradual. Palliatives should have been put in place. Our refineries should have been working so we can refine the product locally and reduce the cost of importation. But the removal was done without showing any feeling for the suffering masses.
No doubt, the real hardship is yet to come. Tinubu has signed students’ loan bill into law. Good idea. But behind this loan scheme lies fears over plans to introduce high tuition fees in our public schools. Again, this is not a bad idea. Education, especially higher education, is not cheap. Our universities have facilities they must maintain. Workers have to be adequately paid. Government has been bearing this cost. What students pay as school fees in public higher institutions is too small to even provide their hostel needs. This is why in many of these schools students live outside the campus because the few available hostels are dilapidated and not fit for human habitation.
But then, how many parents in today’s Nigeria have the wherewithal to pay higher tuition fees as being envisaged? The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has rightly noted that many students would drop out of school if this plan is implemented. ASUU president, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, said introducing tuition fees would be counterproductive in a country where over 133 million people are living below the poverty line.
“We have said long ago, in 2017, to President Buhari, when they came up with the issue of tuition fees, that every student will pay N1 million, and we said you cannot put that in our agreement and you cannot use that to negotiate with us and, with the nature of the country we have today, there is no way that will work,” he said.
A sensitive government should not jack up fuel prices and school fees at the same time. Over 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor. We are in the top league of the hunger hotspot countries in the world. With this level of poverty in the country, many Nigerians cannot bear the shock of any high tuition fee. There must be some social benefits for the masses. The money realized from the fuel subsidy removal should be ploughed back into education and health. Gradually, tuition fees could be introduced in such a manner that an average Nigerian can afford to pay it.
However, Tinubu must first block the avenues through which government officials siphon public funds. Many public servants, including the President, feed fat from the nation’s commonwealth. They don’t feel the pinch of the current hardship because they get almost everything done for them free by the state. I’m sure Tinubu himself understands this fact. We know his antecedents when he governed Lagos. We know the humongous life pensions he pioneered for former governors in many states of the federation. And so, when with fiat, he ordered the suspension and arrest of the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, and the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, one can’t but view his actions with suspicion.
Yes, there are many allegations against these two principal officers of the government. They deserve to be interrogated. But why was Emefiele arrested despite a court order against his arrest in December 2022? Are we to experience a flagrant disregard of the rule of law as partially witnessed during the Muhammadu Buhari administration? When will Tinubu order the arrest of the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)?
Unfortunately, the current National Assembly (NASS) may not be equal to the task of checkmating the excesses of the executive arm of government. The manner of the emergence of the principal officers of the legislature leaves much to be desired. Godswill Akpabio is the new Senate President. Tajudeen Abbas is the new Speaker of the House of Representatives. Congratulations to them! But I don’t see these two people piloting the NASS in strict compliance with the Doctrine of Separation of Powers. Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have a hand in their emergence as Senate President and Speaker, respectively. They will likely kowtow to the President just like the 9th NASS, which ended up as a rubber stamp of the executive. Akpabio said they would not be rubber stamp. Abbas, whose two wives almost created a scene during his swearing in, made similar statements. Easier said than done!
Let’s not forget that the spate of insecurity has not abated. In Tinubu’s first week in office, terrorists and bandits killed about 78 citizens. According to the Nigerian Security Tracker, 12 persons were kidnapped within this first week. So far, hundreds of people, including 50 farmers in Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State, 21 persons in Plateau, 37 persons in Sokoto, and 25 people in Zamfara have been killed in Tinubu’s few days in office. Plateau, Niger, Benue, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kaduna states, among others, are the theatres of these killings. Is this a taste of what to come? Or shall we still have hope? The President should unveil his immediate plans on tackling this spate of insecurity. He should consider decentralizing the police force. Every crime is local and community policing will go a long way in arresting insecurity in the country.
By and large, it is too early to judge Tinubu. As the saying goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. He recently appointed some advisers. We pray they advise him well. And that is if the courts do not upturn his questionable victory in the February 25 poll. Let’s continue to hope for the best for Nigeria.
