Exasperated, or so it seemed, at the flaks falling on him because of the excruciating hardship the common Nigerian has been facing in his administration, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu retorted by telling the people to turn the heat more on their governors instead of him. His comment followed allegations that his rice palliatives to the people which were meant to cushion the effects of the fuel subsidy removal were not reaching the expected destinations.
The bags of rice, acquired with billions of naira from public funds, had been passed through the governors and the National Assembly members. It is yet to be ascertained whether they were misappropriated by the governors and their allies. The fact, however, is that some of the rice might still be on transit.
By shifting the blame to the governors, President Tinubu was only behaving true to type of successive Nigerian presidents who blame every other person but themselves when things go wrong in government. Like an American one-time president, Harry Truman, would say, the buck stops on the president’s table. Why it is different in Nigeria is a case to be studied.
Let’s critically look at the decision to dish out rice to more than 200 million Nigerians. The palliatives issue arose when prices of staple foods and other essential commodities hit the roof following a blanket pronouncement by the president on his inauguration day that fuel subsidy was gone. Debate over the subsidy had raged right from the Ibrahim Babangida days.
The pros and cons of the fuel subsidy removal policy were examined from all ramifications. Arguments, however, were not that the subsidy was wrong but that it had been turned into a conduit for big time corruption in government. In other words, but for the chicaneries that characterized the subsidy business, it is something worthy in the polity as there are proofs that even governments of rich nations subsidize items for their people.
As Nigerians’ awareness were raised on the level to which their nation had declined in debauchery, it dawned on them that should the subsidy continue, the country could one day go bankrupt. They prepared their minds for its removal in this dispensation, but their expectation was that measures would have been in place to cushion the effects the removal was about to have on the economy.
One of the measures, indeed the paramount among the available ones, was the fixing of the nation’s refineries for local production, a stand that Labour canvassed exhaustively, knowing it was going to alleviate the problem a great deal. Rather than that, the government chose to give the people rice. From the experience of the COVID-19 palliatives, the people shouted themselves hoarse against the move, warning that the so-called palliatives would go the way of COVID. It would never reach the people it was meant for. The people still preferred that the money be used to repair the refineries.
Now that the policy choice of the president was bungled, just the way the people warned it would go, should we still not blame Mr. President? Those who back the president’s view of holding the governors responsible are perhaps not aware that the immunity clause inserted in the constitution written by the military had stripped the people of any legal tools against an erring governor and rendered him untouchable. The immunity clause is an open cheque which only conscience can check within the eight years of the reign of the imperial majesties in the various state government houses across the nation. With immunity clause, they wield power even to lethal ends and remain impervious to good reasoning or dialogue, while remaining insulated from any legal action.
Democracy academics might argue that the legislature and the judiciary are there for checks and balances. But it is evident that in the democracy that was planted and watered into maturity in Nigeria, these other arms of government have consistently operated as parastatals that are subordinate to an ultrapowerful executive. Evidently, the country is yet to be weaned off its experience of the military era where government relationships with the people appeared like the boot hanging menacingly over a stray cockroach at the corner.
We are asked not to blame the president who lives in extreme luxury at the expense of the taxpayer, never taking into cognizance the dire need to cut cost of governance. One year into his tenure, the naira tumbled to an all-time low, leaving tales of woes in a heavily import-dependent nation.
The imperfections in the policies of the president lies not in the intentions but in timing and implementation. Throwing the naira into the windy foreign exchange market without first increasing its weight and making it firm enough to withstand the whirlwind in that market appears to be Nigeria’s albatross. And the local production of petrol that was not ensured prior to removal of subsidy sent shockwaves in an economy having no other major energy source than petroleum products.
The government, all of a sudden, is waving the compressed natural gas (CNG) as the magic wand for our transportation problems, asking that all cars should be converted immediately. They know quite well that it was not the ultimate in technology as electric cars, already being produced by Innoson Motors in the country, are the in-thing, indeed, a precursor to solar-driven ones. Someone is definitely dreaming to make his millions from the CNG project before it goes obsolete soon.
On the petrol pricing, apparently, the Federal Government is flouting the deregulation law which it signed into law less than two years ago by all the hide and seek the NNPCL is playing with Dangote and pricing of petrol.
When it comes to the worsening security that has affected food in the country, are we also to blame the governors who are nominally the chief security officers in their states but who, constitutionally, have no control over the police?
The president knows all these and went ahead to subject the nation to these excruciating times. And we should not blame him? If credit is to be given, will the president pass it to the governors? Don’t blame the president indeed.
Dr. Odu can be reached via dirimrich2018@gmail.com, or SMS 07016722929