AUSTIN OBOH
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s New Year speech to the nation on Monday, January 1, failed to inspire most Nigerians as his promises fell short of conviction amid the deteriorating security situation across the country, his seeming uncontrollable financial recklessness, failure of monetary policies, and the untamable rising cost of living. Although he identified key areas of concern he proposed to address, analysts expressed doubts that he would be able to achieve significant success in the light of the confusion and ineffectiveness that have so far attended his approach to governance.
Nonetheless, the president was able to outline the objectives of his administration and his plans for 2024.
Recalling his seven months in office, he attempted to excuse the hardship Nigerians have faced on the difficult decisions he had to make in order to steer the country away from economic catastrophe, especially the critical fuel subsidy removal.
CONFRONTING BASIC CHALLENGES
He promised that, in the new year, his administration would focus on accelerating the pace of service delivery in the energy sector, security, agriculture, foreign investment, poverty alleviation and social security.
Speaking on electricity, he said: “Just this past December during COP28 in Dubai, the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and I agreed and committed to a new deal to speed up the delivery of the Siemens Energy power project that will ultimately deliver reliable supply of electricity to our homes and businesses under the Presidential Power Initiative which began in 2018.
“Other power installation projects to strengthen the reliability of our transmission lines and optimise the integrity of our National grid are ongoing across the country. My administration recognises that no meaningful economic transformation can happen without steady electricity supply.”
On his intentions for the availability of the all-important petroleum products, he promised to push harder on decisions already taking towards local refining.
“In 2024, we are moving a step further in our quest to restart local refining of petroleum products with Port Harcourt Refinery, and the Dangote Refinery which shall fully come on stream,” he said.
As for agriculture and food supply, he pledged to accelerate effort to cultivate 500,000 hectares of farmlands nationwide to grow maize, rice, wheat, millet, and other staple crops in order to guarantee a steady supply, security, and affordability of food.
According to him, “To ensure constant food supply, security and affordability, we will step up our plan to cultivate 500,000 hectares of farmlands across the country to grow maize, rice, wheat, millet and other staple crops. We launched the dry season farming with 120,000 hectares of land in Jigawa State last November under our National Wheat Development Programme.”
Similarly, President Tinubu promised to eliminate all obstacles against domestic and foreign investments.
His words: “In this new year, we will race against time to ensure all the fiscal and tax policies reforms we need to put in place are codified and simplified to ensure the business environment does not destroy value. On every foreign trip I have embarked on, my message to investors and other business people has been the same. Nigeria is ready and open for business.
“I will fight every obstacle that impedes business competitiveness in Nigeria and I will not hesitate to remove any clog hindering our path to making Nigeria a destination of choice for local and foreign investments.”
He also spoke on the eight priority areas outlined in the 2024 budget: Security, job creation, poverty reduction, and others.
“In my 2024 Budget presentation to the National Assembly, I listed my administration’s 8 priority areas to include national defence and internal security, job creation, macro-economic stability, investment environment optimization, human capital development, poverty reduction and social security.
“Because we take our development agenda very seriously, our 2024 budget reflects the premium we placed on achieving our governance objectives,” he said.
But his address was roundly disparaged by opposition parties which ridiculed his promised and wrote off the strategies he has adopted.
LEAVING TOO MANY UNSAID
The Labour Party (LP) Said it was shocked by the hollowness of the president’s speech, noting that it failed to address pressing issues.
According to the party, if anything, the speech conveyed to Nigerians the high level of hypocrisy, deceit, and lack of empathy that has become the guiding principle of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Labour Party said it is depressing to note that the President and his handlers did not deem it fit to include a word of comfort for the families of over 200 people killed by terrorists during the Christmas Eve massacre in Plateau State.
A statement signed by Obiora Ifoh, National Publicity Secretary of Labour Party, stated: “The President’s helplessness in the face of his glaring failure to address the critical issues of insecurity, decayed infrastructure, collapse of the manufacturing and productive sectors, inflation, and the naira to the dollar exchange rate, which is spiralling out of control, is written all over the speech.
“There was no word about the alleged massive looting of the nation’s resources by appointees and party leaders in various sectors.
“Most disturbing for us is the President’s false claim that ‘everything I have done in office, every decision I have taken and every trip I have undertaken outside the shores of our land since I assumed office on 29 May 2023, has been done in the best interest of our country.’ What a despicable form of deceit!
“How does his ill-advised decision on fuel subsidy removal without a plan to ameliorate the suffering of Nigerians translate into an action taken in the national interest?
“Of what benefit were the millions of the nation’s dwindling foreign reserves frittered away under the guise of attending the climate change summit in Dubai to Nigerians?
“How do we begin to repair the damage being done to our democratic institutions, such as the judiciary, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, among others, by the APC administration?
“While we call for prayers for our nation at this critical point in our history, we will continue to call on the National Assembly to look beyond party lines and ensure that the spirit and the letter of our Constitution is upheld at all times.”
The LP pointed out that there was no word about the alleged massive looting of the nation’s resources by appointees and party leaders in various sectors.
“Most disturbing for us is the President’s false claim that ‘everything I have done in office, every decision I have taken and every trip I have undertaken outside the shores of our land since I assumed office on 29 May 2023, has been done in the best interest of our country.’ What a despicable form of deceit!
“How does his ill-advised decision on fuel subsidy removal without a plan to ameliorate the suffering of Nigerians translate into an action taken in the national interest? Of what benefit were the millions of the nation’s dwindling foreign reserves frittered away under the guise of attending the climate change summit in Dubai to Nigerians?
“How do we begin to repair the damage being done to our democratic institutions, such as the judiciary, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, among others, by the APC administration?
“While we call for prayers for our nation at this critical point in our history, we will continue to call on the National Assembly to look beyond party lines and ensure that the spirit and the letter of our constitution is upheld at all times,” it said.
HARVEST OF DECEITS
On its part, the major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described the New Year broadcast as a harvest of deceit, false claims and empty promises.
The party stated this position in a statement issued on Monday by Debo Ologunagba, National Publicity Secretary, describing the speech as unpresidential, uninspiring and amounts to a waste of valuable time as it did not address any of the critical issues plaguing the nation.
The statement added: “Nigerians were dismayed as President Tinubu employed rhetoric and failed to address the critical issues of insecurity, decayed infrastructure, comatose manufacturing and productive sectors; crushing 28% inflation rate, continuing plunge of the Naira, alarming unemployment, excruciating poverty and economic hardship occasioned by the reckless, ill-advised and insensitive policies and programmes of his administration.
“President Tinubu failed to address the vexatious issue of incompetence, insensitivity, massive profligacy, unbridled treasury-looting inherent in his administration, which have put our nation in dire strait.
“More distressing is that President Tinubu had no words in his New Year address for the Christmas eve genocidal massacre of over 200 Nigerians by terrorists in Plateau State and the murder of over 5000 citizens in Plateau and other States of the federation under his watch since May 29, 2023. What manner of a President!
“It is an unpardonable assault on the sensibility of Nigerians for President Tinubu to brazenly assert that ‘everything I have done in office, every decision I have taken and every trip I have undertaken outside the shores of our land, since I assumed office on 29 May 2023, have been done in the best interest of our country.’
“On the contrary, all decisions and actions of the Tinubu Presidency including the approval of increase in the pump price of fuel from N167 to over N700 per liter, devaluation of the naira with the consequential high costs and hardship; skewing of the 2024 budget in favour of luxury appetite of the Presidency and APC leaders without concrete policies to revive the economy and create jobs; the wasteful foreign trips with political cronies and failure to address the mindless killings across the nation cannot be said to be in the interest of our country.
“Furthermore, the undermining of the Constitution and Institutions of Democracy including attempts to emasculate the National Assembly and compromising of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) through the appointment of APC card-carrying members as Resident Electoral Commissioners cannot be in the interest of the nation.
“President Tinubu’s claims that his anti-people actions and policies, with their calamitous consequences are in the interest of the nation further confirms that this administration is deliberately subjecting Nigerians to hardship as a way to suppress them to surrender to totalitarianism.
“Also, in stating that ‘from the boardrooms at Broad Street in Lagos to the main-streets of Kano and Nembe Creeks in Bayelsa, I hear the groans of Nigerians who work hard every day to provide for themselves and their families.’ President Tinubu has admitted that his administration has plunged Nigerians into pain, anguish and misery.
“President Tinubu ought to have used the opportunity presented by the New Year to apologize to Nigerians and marshal out steps to address our national challenges, including those responsible for the exiting of multinational manufacturing companies and other businesses from our country.
“What Nigerians demand of President Tinubu is to provide a comprehensive account of our nation’s earnings including the proceeds from the removal of subsidy on petroleum products, especially in the face of allegations that the earnings are being diverted to private pockets of APC leaders and their cronies.”
The PDP invited the National Assembly to step up and perform its Constitutional role of oversight to hold the executive arm accountable as the custodian of the purse of the nation.
SHORT ON TIMELINES
A former federal lawmaker, Shehu Sani, also described President Tinubu’s New Year speech as a native doctor’s words of hope to a sick person.
Reacting to the speech, Sani, a former senator who represented Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the 8th Assembly, noted that the President did not set any time for any of the promises to take effect.
“The President’s speech is good and encouraging. It gives the kind of hope raised by native doctors – that you will be delivered from your sickness but no date,” he said.
But, expectedly, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) faulted the opposition parties’ views, zeroing in on the PDP which it accused of a “haughty display of ignorance of essential social and economic policy or wilful blindness to the administration’s bold and courageous efforts to raise the bar for sustainable growth and development of our country.”
Felix Morka, APC National Publicity Secretary, in a statement on Tuesday, urged Nigerians to stand fast with the APC administration of President Tinubu as he delivers on his electoral promise to secure improved living conditions for all.
It added: “The statement by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of January 1, 2024, waving off President Bola Tinubu’s New Year message is a testament to the party’s incapacity to serve as a sensible or credible opposition party. If the status of the opposition party were a contested one, the PDP would still miserably fail to pass muster.
“Democratic opposition politics is not exactly about being a masterclass of incivility or casting crude aspersions without justification.
“It is also not about a haughty display of ignorance of essential social and economic policy or willful blindness to the administration’s bold and courageous efforts to raise the bar for sustainable growth and development of our country. PDP’s nagging irrationality is a blight on our democracy.
“Both in tone and substance, President Tinubu’s New Year address was measured, sensitive, articulate, highly presidential and an excellent fit for the purpose and occasion it was delivered.
“A New Year speech of any President is a goodwill message to the nation in celebration of the new year. It is a moment for tone-setting of expectations for the year ahead.
“It is not a policy speech delivered to a think tank. Even that basic understanding of the nature of a New Year speech stands elusive to highly deluded PDP.
“The President was forthright in his acknowledgement of the transient tough impact that some of the administration’s policies have had on citizens, just as he was categorical in expression of commitment to do everything under the power of his office to tackle prevailing challenges and secure a safer and stronger country for the benefit of all.
“The President addressed Nigerians with candour, sensitivity and attentiveness of a kind unknown to the PDP in its 16 years of reckless, and never again, rule.
“The President’s New Year message struck the right chord with Nigerians, assuring of the administration’s commitment to fixing power and energy challenges, locally refining petroleum products, crashing prices of products, creating jobs, enabling a more favourable business environment, tackling insecurity, expanding food security and affordability, implementing new minimum wage for workers, and more.
“Signing the 2024 budget into law on New Year’s Day is further evidence of the President walking the talk. The President is busy doing the job he was elected to do and will not be distracted by PDP’s idle mischief.
“We urge Nigerians to stand fast with the APC administration of President Tinubu as he delivers on his electoral promise to secure improved living conditions for all.”
It is still too early to predict how much success President Tinubu may achieve in the new year as he takes steps to implement the policies he has set out in response to the critical issues that confront Nigerians and challenge their wellbeing, but it would not be out of place to point out that his government’s commitment to the policies would largely be the most important determinant of the outcome.
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