Expectation Heightens As Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Mantra Scales 30 Days Litmus Test
By Nelson Ekujimi
As the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) clocks 30 days in office since his inauguration, with pomp and pageantry as the 16th President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on May 29, 2023, the activities of the new government so far in 30 days signpost that truly, Renewed Hope is here with its courageous and laudable actions.
Prior to his inauguration after securing a pan-Nigerian mandate from the February 25th 2023 presidential election, which has been adjudged as one of the fairest, most transparent, most successful and credible elections in Nigeria’s political history, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu emphatically stated that nobody should pity him, that he’s well aware of the tasks ahead and prepared for the job that he solicited and got the votes of majority of Nigerians to execute. Since his inauguration into office, President Bola Tinubu has dumbfounded even his critics to the extent that they have become converts and convinced beyond all reasonable doubt, that truly, this is the right man for the job.
President Tinubu has justified the confidence millions of Nigerians reposed in him, during the campaign period, to further the desire of Nigerians for economic, social and political growth through purposeful, competent and result-oriented governance.
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At his inaugural speech, President Tinubu made it known to Nigerians that the fuel subsidy regime, which had mutated into a ravenous cancer on the country’s economy, was gone.
Thus, by that statement, he abolished what had become an intractable economic drainpipe that was constituting a real danger to the economic well-being of the nation. This bold, decisive and courageous act pointed the way to a determined era that has the boldness to take decisive actions for the good of the nation.
The President also made it known that his administration was going to abolish the multiple foreign exchange window for a single foreign exchange market among other promises in line with his Renewed Hope manifesto. This, he promised was to mitigate the huge gap and all attendant contractions inherent in the country’s foreign exchange system.
Consequently, the reverberating effects of these two new policy statements by Mr. President resulted in an economic quake as the price of PMS immediately jumped up to between N600-800 naira per liter from N195 per liter at the pumps with its attendant rise in costs of transportation, goods and services across the country.
As expected, opinions were divided among Nigerians about the propriety of the timing of the fuel subsidy removal policy statement, with the central labour unions spoiling for an industrial shutdown of the nation or a reversal of the policy.
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Barely 24-48 hours later, it took an announcement of ex-depot prices of PMS per liter at the pumps across the 36 states and the FCT by the Nigeria National Petroleum Company limited, for sanity to be restored and a clear direction of the policy manifested. With this clarity, fuel pump prices stabilized at between N488 to N570 per liter depending on location and the fuel importation business became fully deregulated. So far, about four major players in the fuel sector have been licensed to import fuel into the country, thus breaking the monopoly which the NNPC has enjoyed for decades.
There is a realistic expectation that with the competition that has been unleashed on the fuel importation business and with the coming on stream of local refining of crude oil any moment from now, most notably the Dangote refinery, pump price per liter of petrol would expectedly come down.
Within a week of the policy statement on fuel subsidy abolition, the stock market gained N1.55 trillion naira which was unprecedented in our economic history, with local and international groups, bodies and organizations including the 36 states Governors throwing their weight behind this laudable economic policy of the new administration.
The World Bank and other international financial agencies like the IMF, AFDB, etc. all jumped into the fray in applauding the Nigerian government for the bold and economic wise decision of stopping the hemorrhaging of the Nigerian economy through the fuel subsidy regime which was like a pandemic against the economic prosperity of the Nigerian people.
According to the World Bank, Nigeria is to save $5.1 billion (N3.9 trillion) alone after the removal of fuel subsidies and the reforms of the foreign exchange market will make the savings to reach N21 trillion naira between 2023 and 2025.
For our education, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu inherited the fuel subsidy regime abolition policy from his predecessor, former President Muhammadu Buhari administration whose appropriation for fuel subsidy in the 2023 national budget was only from January to June 2023 according to law.
Thus, as a pragmatic economist and focused leader, President Bola Tinubu, from his inaugural address, made it clear to the Nigerian people that the fuel subsidy regime which Nigerians and even international economic watchers have all agreed was a drainpipe being used to benefit some privileged few at the expense of the vast majority of Nigerians and which fund cheap fuel for neighbouring counties at the expense of the Nigerian economy, had to go and he gave a presidential approval to its abolition.
While Nigerians were still trying to come to terms with the attendant shock of the fuel subsidy abolition, Mr. President addressed Nigerians on June 12 Democracy day and gave assurances that the pains of the hard decision was in the overall interest of Nigerians who would be the beneficiaries in the long run as more resources will be freed up to the three tiers of government to deliver on the dividends of democracy.
As negotiations and discussions were ongoing between the federal government and organized labour who had to bow to reason to suspend their threatened industrial showdown, the federal government assured that it was going to set up a tripartite committee to look at the demands and position papers of all the stakeholders in the process, just as it promised to roll out palliatives to cushion the effect of the policy on the populace.
The suspension of the former CBN Governor Mr. Godwin Emefiele for alledged abuse of office, has signposted the seriousness of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration focus on the revival of the economy and all the indices till date, points in the right direction that truly, there is Renewed Hope in the horizon for a prosperous Nigeria. With the suspension of the CBN Governor, President Tinubu signposted his readiness to cleanse the country’s financial sector of the many cobwebs and malfeasances that had grown during the Emefiele era, which impede growth and establish a new financial regime that conforms with global financial best practices needed to sustain the reforms being carried out in the sector.
Equally, the President suspended the EFCC Chairman, Mohammed Bawa in his desire to re-energize and clean the anti-corruption agency for the new socio-economic regime that is dawning.
Mr. President in his first 30 days has signed into law the students loan Act in line with his Renewed Hope campaign manifesto and the benefits to the society will be seen in the days ahead. With this comes a Renewed Hope for access to tertiary education by the less privileged in Nigeria.
The sacking of former service chiefs and the appointment of new ones and a new National Security Adviser are pointers to how President Bola Tinubu administration takes seriously the raison de’tre of government which is about the security of life and property. It is expected that the new service chiefs will redesign and rejig the security architecture of the nation, infuse more confidence and hope in the citizenry, which are critical components of the Renewed Hope era.
President Bola Tinubu has also dissolved all boards and governing councils of government ministries, departments and agencies in a bold way to bring in fresher and more competent hands to drive the operations of his government.
We cannot leave out the strategic nature of the appointments made so far by President Tinubu, with emphasis on competence, ethnic and religious balance and of course, youth interest. These flow from his promise in his Renewed Hope manifesto to be fair to all.
As we x-ray into the first 30 days of the Renewed Hope era, we dare state with boldness and confidence that the revolutionary actions taken by President Tinubu in his first 30 days, Nigerians can be rest assured that Renewed Hope for a peaceful, progressive and prosperous federal of Nigeria looks brighter than ever. We are optimistic that more exciting and revolutionary actions are in the offing to ensure Nigerians get full payoffs from their investment in his Renewed Hope.
