To say that the administration of President Bola Tinubu is enmeshed in a crisis of credibility is to put the situation mildly. For a man who got to office with a statistically narrow mandate of 37 percent of total votes cast, many expected Tinubu to rise above himself in order to establish an enduring legacy. That expectation now appears misplaced. Even more worrisome is that despite being in a ditch, the president and his handlers continue to dig by displaying a behaviour the Yoruba would describe as “tani o mu mi”.
As I once explained on this page, it is the kind of impunity that carries a certain sense of hubris, not only for the perpetrator(s) but also for the larger society.
It all began with a report in TheCable, which supplied the proof for what most already suspected or knew: The federal government has been spending trillions of Naira to pay for fuel subsidy even when officials continue to parrot the presidential deceit that “subsidy is gone.” Then, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar released a scathing statement that Nigeria “has been effectively mortgaged to President Bola Tinubu, his family, and associates,” citing how the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) allegedly put its retail arm under the control of OVH, which he claimed (it has been disputed by NNPC Ltd) is controlled by Wale Tinubu’s Oando.
These issues were still playing out when Nigerians got to know that a new presidential jet had been surreptitiously purchased by a government that has been doubling down on policies that make life difficult for the ordinary Nigerian. “The new plane, bought far below the market price, saves Nigeria huge maintenance and fuel costs, running into millions of dollars yearly,” was all the explanation from the villa, even when Nigerians still don’t know the cost of this plane and how it was acquired. And we probably would not have been informed about it had the Chinese firm, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co Limited, not impounded three presidential aircraft in Paris, following the order of a French court on their dispute with Ogun State. It was the court that included one ACJ330-200, 5N-FGA (msn 1053), “recently bought from AMAC Corporate Jet (AMK, Zurich) and still stationed at Basel” while authorising the bailiffs “to go any place where the aircraft registered 5N-FGU, 5N-FGT and 5N-FGA are located and seize them.”
That was how Nigerians got to know that we have a new presidential jet. The aircraft, we would later learn, was released as an act of benevolence to our president by the Chinese company so that it would not affect his travel plans, including to China next week for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit. Incidentally, I am currently in Chengdu, Sichuan Province of China for the 2024 Media Cooperation Forum on Belt and Road where I was among the speakers yesterday on the theme, ‘Enhancing media cooperation for common development.’ I will also be attending the 3rd Belt and Road News Network (BRNN) Council meeting today before heading back home on Sunday.
In his column last Sunday explaining how Tinubu’s fuel subsidy reform efforts unravelled, Waziri Adio concluded that for the administration, “an open acknowledgment” that subsidy is still very much with us “is a necessary starting point, for you cannot address what you haven’t even accepted exists or is a problem.” And “after coming clean, the government needs to level up with Nigerians about how it plans to manage the subsidy in a transparent and accountable way.” But that is precisely where the problem lies: This president is exhibiting a contempt for transparency and accountability in the conduct of government business. We saw that with the award of the contract for the multi trillion Naira Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road project and the manner several budgets are running concurrently.
So much has been said about Tinubu’s political acumen and the fact that he plotted his way to power without being beholden to any interest. That may well be true. But a leader must embody not only political skills to secure power but also the right values that would enable him to govern in the interest of the public good. When a president calls citizens to a greater national purpose or makes decisions that are broadly seen as driven by good impulses, according to Michael Hogue, they can drive extraordinary results. “He’ll have the public on his side, even when many people disagree with his policies if what he is pursuing is fair, instils pride in national action, or serves laudable goals.” While Hogue’s thesis may be on the American presidency, the moral authority he canvasses is indeed true of all presidencies.
Due to the policy choices being made by the Tinubu administration – which may not necessarily be wrong but have been implemented in a cavalier manner, Nigerians have had to bear an unprecedented hardship occasioned by astronomical costs of goods and services in the past 15 months. Effectively, local air travel has been placed beyond the reach of most Nigerians as can be glimpsed from industry statistics. We pay several times more at the pump than at any time in history. Electricity tariffs have gone through the roof, regardless of whether one is categorised under Band A, B or F. Parents have had to withdraw their children from schooling abroad following the collapse of the Naira. And any middle-class professional who doesn’t know the prices of basic foodstuffs like garri, rice, tomatoes etc. in the market must belong to the Godswill Akpabio exclusive club of those who are “eating”.
Unfortunately, the president believes he can continue to live like an emperor and revel in ostentatious lifestyle at a time millions of Nigerians are attempting to cope with harrowing times. I saw this quite early, in fact within the first month of the administration and I warned in a column, ‘My convoy is longer than yours’, following his first official visit to Lagos. “What was on display is a metaphor for profligacy and abuse of public resources that have come to define officialdom in Nigeria,” I wrote in response to the video of his long convoy of vehicles, which was posted on social media by a bragging supporter of the president. “The real issue is whether a government that preaches sacrifice can continue with such indulgence, especially at a period when many people are going through hard times.”
I then stressed the need for President Tinubu and his handlers not to misread the public mood. “That he has used his honeymoon period to strike when the iron is still hot on two critical policy issues may have earned him momentary applause on decisive leadership. But there are no predictable outcomes for those choices in an environment where several variables are beyond his control. So, there is a need for caution,” I counselled in what has turned out to be prescient before I concluded: “While human nature predisposes people to act mostly in pursuit of self-interest, the essence of government is to subordinate the personal convenience of individuals to the imperatives of the common good. Yet, the crisis of present-day Nigeria is that there is little in our code of public conduct that encourages moderation or sacrifice. Rolling back conveniences, no matter how little, are usually some of the first steps public officials take when their country battle economic downturns.”
The times we are in call for a different leadership template than the one currently on display. Public expectations of leaders who seek sacrifice from the people are enormous and no president in contemporary history has demanded more from Nigerians than Tinubu with the policies he has initiated. He must therefore begin to embrace transparency if he wants to earn the trust and respect of Nigerians. He must also begin to set high standards for himself and take responsibility for mistakes. On that score, he should own up to the fact that we continue to commit enormous resources to paying fuel subsidies. Nigerians also want to know how much was paid for the newly acquired presidential jet and the process through which it was procured. When citizens see leaders being honest and open, trust and loyalty flourish. And that creates a sense of ownership without which no reform measures can succeed.
Meanwhile, it would seem the administration thrives on announcing policies by whims, with little thought to implementation. In February, an eight-man committee headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume was given a 12-week deadline for the full implementation of the Oronsaye Report through mergers, scrapings, and relocations of some agencies. That, of course, was after Tinubu had created more ministries than any previous administration. It is therefore no surprise that more than seven months after that sensational announcement, nothing has happened. Now, the Chief of Staff to the president, Femi Gbajabiamila, is saying there is no timeline for implementing the Oronsaye Report!
The president and his handlers must understand that public officials who believe in their invincibility are poor students of history. Malcom Gladwell, famous Canadian journalist and author made that point rather poignantly in his book, ‘David and Goliath’. Power, according to Gladwell, has an important limitation. “It has to be seen as legitimate, or else its use has the opposite of its intended effect”, which may then come with dire consequences. I stated earlier that Tinubu has elevated himself to the status of ‘Ta ni o mu mi’. But the danger with ‘Tani o mu mi’—a strange place where both the codes of morality and the boundary between right and wrong have simply disappeared—is that it is a two-edged sword.
Having achieved presidential power and the unlimited privileges that go with it in Nigeria, the dominant school of thought is that Tinubu has reached the destination he longed for. That may well explain why he is courting authoritarianism with the acquiescence of a pliant National Assembly and the seeming resignation of a docile populace. But I still want to believe that we are misreading the president. He must know what he is doing, and I therefore expect he will end up on the right side of history. From 1992 when he was a Senator during the aborted Third Republic of General Ibrahim Babangida to his period as Lagos State Governor and then as a private citizen, with enormous political clout, I have had the privilege of close personal interactions with Tinubu. And if those experiences count for anything, it is that Tinubu is empathic and is interested in the welfare of the people and the broader good. But if I am wrong, and all his exertions in the last two decades were to become president of Nigeria as an end in itself, or simply to enjoy the trappings of the office, then there can be no greater tragedy. For him, as well as our beloved country.
