Ahead of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu anniversary of one year in the office, there have been several policy readjustments and creativities in many sectors of Nigeria’s economy which a lot of people have hailed as a welcome development.
Although, some of these developments have been reported on the pages of newspapers but there are other things President Tinubu has been doing differently which Nigerians don’t pay much attention to.
Apart from these two reforms: fuel subsidy removal and unification of exchange rate – though painful, which have not only helped the nation stand on its feet economically, they have also saved the nation several billions of naira that were, hitherto, going into private pockets.
President Tinubu has also done several things to prove his doubters wrong in the area of corruption and mismanagement etc. Below are some of the steps the President has taken to curtail some excesses which became the order of the day in the previous administrations.
For the first time in Nigeria, we now have a EFCC who can prosecute anybody, especially the people in the government of the day without any fear of interference.
When Betta Edu, the former Federal Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, was charged for misconduct a few months back, the President took an unprecedented action by suspending her with immediate effect.
The President further directed the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to conduct a thorough investigation into all aspects of the financial transactions involving the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, as well as one or more agencies thereunder.
This same thing also repeated itself when the EFCC went after the former Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello who was seen with the President a few days before the EFCC moved against him.
The President through the office of The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) urged the immediate-past Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to surrender himself to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Some of these people who have big cases with the EFCC today are APC members. What about the last election court case? Many Nigerians had thought the President will influence the out come in many states where APC lost but reverse was the case. In fact, rumours have it that, the current All Progressive Party Chairman Alhaji Ganduje complained that the president should have intervened. That was when the Kano State Governor, Abba Yusuf, hailed President Bola Tinubu for not succumbing to alleged pressure to influence the decision of the Supreme Court in Kano and other governorship elections across the country.
Another case is that, he was able to Sign 2023 Electricity Bill into Law. This has been a major issue as to why some states in the country can’t provide or generate energy of their own.
The 2023 Electricity Act is expected to de-monopolise electricity generation, transmission and distribution at the national level was also signed into law by the president within the period under review. In signing the electricity bill into law, Tinubu has now empowered state governments, companies and individuals to generate, distributetribute and transmit electricity.
One of the states that has taken a full use of this bill is Enugu who recently unveiled its private energy plant.
Another vital point is that, no Nigerian government has appointed more youths into her government that the present government. In fact, they have pegged the percentage of youth that will be in government to around 30 percent.
A few months back, the Minister of Youth and Development, Jamila Ibrahim said the 30 percent quota will address issues of youth exclusion in decision-making processes in the country and that the council also approved the restructuring of the youth investment fund, adding that a technical committee has been established for its review.
“We have received council’s approval to institutionalise a 30% youth quota, representation of young people in all government appointments and equitable young women representation inclusive of this 30%,”.
Like no other, the present government has also provide interventions that when it materialise, would boost Nigeria economy.
Some of the interventions include the provision of N1bn ($1.16m) credit to each of 75 manufacturing companies over the next year and the provision of N125bn ($145m) in the form of grants and loans to small, medium-sized enterprises and other businesses in the informal sector. The government also ordered the release of 200,000 metric tons of grains to households across the country to help stabilise the price of food while 225,000 metric tons of fertilisers, seedlings and other inputs are being provided to farmers. At least N200bn ($232m) would also be invested in agriculture to boost farming.
Another commendable step is diversifying from PMS to CNG which is gear toward boosting Nigeria’s economy and provide jobs.
Recall that after the removal of the fuel subsidy, President Tinubu launched the Presidential CNG Initiative in October last year expected to deliver cheaper, safer and more climate friendly energy.
The CNG initiative was designed to deliver compressed natural gas, especially for mass transit.
The federal government was expected to purchase 5500 CNG vehicles (buses and tricycles), 100 electric buses and over 20,000 CNG conversion kits, alongside spurring the development of CNG refilling stations and electric charging stations across the country.
All is now ready for delivery of the first set of critical assets for deployment and launch of the CNG initiative ahead of the first anniversary of the Tinubu administration on May 29.”
Another laudable thing by the Tinubu led government is that, he has given all his ministries, and agencies the liberty to act freely without any interference. He has even told the National Assembly to let them work. He appealed to members of the National Assembly to exercise restraint in summoning heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies before parliamentary committees.
The President made the appeal while speaking at the breaking of the Ramadan fast on Wednesday in Abuja alongside the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, and the leadership of the house.
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