Since Pres. Tinubu returned from his recent visit to France where he spent some time to rest, his biggest headache has been what to do decisively, with a lot of those around him as Ministers, Advisers and Governors.
This is because many of them have performed below expectations. City People gathered that many of these appointees have not been helping the President actualise the policies of government. Many of his Ministers have not been pulling their weights. According to an insider, with the exception of one or two Ministers, others have simply gone to sleep.
The President is also amazed at the torrents of allegations suggesting that many of today’s public office holders have been involved in all manner of scams. And as for the governors, the allegation is that they have been collecting huge allocations to help alleviate the hardship in the country but they have nothing to show for it, months after.
Many of them are also being accused of living large, while they admonish Nigerians to tighten their belts.
They have all not shown good examples.
As you read this, the 2 biggest problems facing the Tinubu administration is the bad Economy and worsening Insecurity situation. And much as the government has tried to tackle the challenges with different policies, not much has been achieved.
Many of the governors have allegedly collected all the allocations coming from Abuja and are not doing anything to help their people.
That is one of the reasons the President recently held a meeting with Governors in Aso-Rock, where he told them that there must be Zero Tolerance for Incompetence. He also told them to support local farmers to boost food production and remove rent seekers.
President Bola Tinubu says his administration is evolving home-grown solutions to address the nation’s food security challenges by setting up schemes to support local production and discourage all forms of rent-seeking that are associated with food importation.
The President made this declaration at a meeting with the 36 state governors, attended by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, the National Security Adviser, the Inspector-General of Police, the Director-General of the DSS, and some ministers at the State House in Abuja on Thursday.
On Security, President Tinubu approved the establishment of a Committee comprising state governors and representatives of the federal government to, among other things, explore the modalities for establishing State Police.
The President further endorsed the training and equipping of forest rangers by sub-national governments to safeguard human and natural resources in local communities.
“My position is that we must move aggressively and establish a committee to look critically at the issues raised, including the possibility of establishing State Police.
“From Kano, we have read reports about large-scale hoarding of food in some warehouses. The National Security Adviser (NSA), the Inspector-General of Police, and the Director-General of the Department of State Services should coordinate very closely and ensure that security agencies in the states inspect such warehouses with follow up action”.
“We must ensure that speculators, hoarders, and rent seekers are not allowed to sabotage our efforts in ensuring the wide availability of food to all Nigerians.
“What I will not do is to set a Price control board. I will not also approve the importation of food. We should be able to get ourselves out of the situation we found ourselves in, because importation will allow rent seekers to perpetrate fraud and mismanagement at our collective expense. We would rather support farmers with the schemes that will make them go to the farm and grow more food for everyone in the country.
“We must also look at the rapid, but thoughtful implementation of our livestock development and management plans, including dairy farming and others,’’ the President stated.
President Tinubu urged the governors to trust the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with the management of the country’s monetary policy, emphasizing the importance of allowing designated institutions to fulfill their mandate effectively.
He said the “cacophony of postulations’’ on the fluctuation of foreign exchange rates was unduly affecting the market negatively.
“Every one of us can not be an expert. If we have given someone an assignment, let us allow them to do it. If they can not do it, then we find a way to quickly get them out of the system,’’ the President affirmed.
President Tinubu asked the governors to always make the welfare and prosperity of the people a priority of their development programmes, assuring them that the federal government will continue to work diligently to improve the nation’s revenue profile.
At the meeting, the President and the governors emphasized the importance of working together to address issues of insecurity, food security, and out-of-school children.
Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) expressed appreciation to President Tinubu for convening the meeting and affirmed the governors’ commitment to partnering closely with the federal government.
There have also been strong indications that the President is going to sack some Ministers. But the concern is how it look if he sacks almost half of the cabinet for Incompetence.
Apart from the challenges coming from Incompetence of some officials within the government, how about the challenges coming from the Oil Subsidy Mafia who are spending heavily to destabilise the government?
City People gathered that a lot of those who have been negatively affected by the removal of the Oil Subsidy by Pres. Bola Tinubu, have intensified their efforts to get him to reverse it. They have been funding all sorts of groups to continue to hold pockets of rallies to agitate against Tinubu’s policies.
There are also the Northern cabal, majorly made up of some of those who lost out in the last presidential election and who have decided that rubbishing the Tinubu administration will in no small way make it weak for the 2027 presidential elections.
According to an insider, it’s all a game of politics. Some top Northern politicians are already working towards 2027. They feel if they rubbish the Tinubu administration as a failure, it will affect its chances in the 2027 elections.
A few days ago, the Afenifere issued a statement in which it said that Afenifere has watched with significant disbelief the sudden reawakening of voices across the federation over the worsening economic situation in Nigerian. “Many forgot that the economic downturn was caused by previous administrations and made worse by the Buhari Administration. On a platform of hope and our defective federalism, promises were made, most of which were not fulfilled”.
“Under Buhari’s watch, terrorists and bandits were operating effortlessly. Law and order broke down. Many innocent citizens including the daughter of our leader were killed and or kidnapped. President Buhari could not rein in his critical officials like the then Governor of CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who was printing money rather than facing the reality of taking the difficult decisions, which were postponed till the evil day”.
“A probe panel was reported to have accused Godwin Emefiele and his team of printing N22.7 Trillion through Ways and Means. We remembered that we were borrowing to pay salaries and pensions during the years of the Buhari administration”.
“We recall that some ministers suggested the removal of subsidies, among other economic decisions, but President Buhari would not agree until his last year in office to lay a booby trap for the incoming administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu”.
“It was, therefore, obvious that we were simply postponing the evil day. The CBN Governor denied leaks flying around that the books were being doctored. He reassured the federation that all was well. He even wanted to contest the presidential election! There were no penalties for his infractions by President Buhari. These inactions and false lives continued till May 29, 2023, when the new helmsman, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, was sworn in as President”.
“President Tinubu wasted no time amending his inauguration address and declared the subsidy regime over! This was obvious as there was no appropriation for subsidy from June 2023. He quickly followed up with the deregulation of the forex regime, which resulted in the free fall of the naira. A man who is not shy about making difficult decisions, he probably underestimated the capability and capacity of the beneficiaries of the old order to make things ungovernable for his administration”.
“Those sleeping and snoring during the 8 years of Buhari suddenly woke up. They forgot that these remedial actions should have been taken many years back. The major sins of PBAT reside in his daring to contest and win the presidential election and make these decisions, which will hurt in the short term but bring us back to reality in the long run. What do we need now?
- A vibrant Ministry of Information to regularly stay in touch with the people. Current economic challenges are worldwide in scope and not peculiar to Nigeria.
- Regular town hall meetings across the country where ministers will go back to their constituencies to engage with the people.
- Realignment of the NASS budget and launch of Operation Go Back to the people by our legislators. Each NASS member must take palliatives back to the constituency.
- Governors receiving almost double allocations due to the removal of subsidies and readjustment of the exchange rates should deliver to their people.
- The allocations of each state of the federation should be published on a monthly basis
- Implementation of Operation grow what we eat and eat what we grow policy.
- Make banditry, kidnapping and terrorism a Capital Offence punishable by death.
- Return to true and fiscal federalism with State Police, for which we commend the President and Governors’ endorsement, and state ownership of mineral resources”.
“This is not the time for some elder statesmen to make incendiary comments that can put our unity in jeopardy. Rather, it is a time to deepen peaceful co-existence to navigate through our current challenges. Orchestrating anarchy will be resisted in our dear nation. We fought through our blood to achieve democracy. We will also vigorously defend it, as it is here to stay”.
The release was signed by Otunba Kole Organising Secretary of Afenifere and Comrade Lanre Ajayi the Publicity Secretary.
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