USAfrica: Tinubu’s missed opportunity to show a corridor of hope for Nigerians. By Bobo Sofiri Brown

Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.

Did President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s speech on July 31, 2023 show a missed opportunity to connect with the overwhelming population of Nigerians  anxious to find a corridor of hope for their homeland? Or did he simply present a bold mission statement to enrich a new faction of an unproductive merchant cabal? President Tinubu  should know that such cabals exist at Federal and State levels, as pipelines of money and influence at the expense of the national economy and ordinary citizens.

He identified those he said had lavish bank accounts from long years of petroleum subsidy payments. He said such people have become rich and a threat to the country, as products of what looks like “feeding bottle policies” that tied government treasuries to their bank accounts.

I became more excited from this point in the speech by President Tinubu  to see how the culprits in the President’s analysis would be tackled. It added to my initial sense of inquisitiveness, as I began searching for news that:

1. the President is negotiating with the National Labour Congress, Manufaturers Association of Nigeria and other membership bodies of the Organized Private Sector.

1. As a matter of urgency, he needs to get the Federal and State governments into agreement on what can push millions of Nigerians out of despair now ie from the darkness of hope-crushing worry to the dawn of meaningful opportunities and career work.
2. Today’s Nigeria requires something like the Marshall Plan and declaration of a National Economic Emergency! Such will win public appreciation if it also shows  clear targets in reduction of governance convoys and wasteful perks of office, while promoting clear  targets of Joint Venture Cooperative farms between FGN, State and communities in each state to produce and process specific  quantities of grains, tubers, meat and seafood products within 2023 and a national percentage increase for 2024.

1. Every State would have been energized to set up its own economic emergency implementation committee, with a blueprint of integrated factories to line our Senatorial Districts and linking LGAs into viable chains of productivity.China did something similar that in a period of 20 years it was able to emerge as the world’s manufacturing workshop. Nigeria can become the stable workshop of developing economies.China’s experiment quickly lifted 100 million out of poverty in its first few years, as was acknowledged by the United Nations. Nigeria’s 200 million trekking population are waiting for a spark to bring the best out them.

1. A timeline to restore Nigeria’s refineries to full production capacity, stop importation of petrol and to reposition the nation as a major player in downstream  Sector of Oil and Gas;Commit to criminal prosecution of previous contractors paid for rehabilitation of Nigeria’s four refineries.

Different administrations from 2003-  2022 were busy announcing competing deadlines for completion of turn-around maintenance (TAM) or refurbishing of Nigeria’s refineries.

From 2011-2022 at least no less than three TAM completion dates were announced  for the two Port Harcourt refineries to start delivering petrol by processing 1000 barrels of  crude oil per day.

Can’t those officials and their contractors paid by Federal government, be brought to book?

Should we not find out the truth whether the refineries were only used to siphon money for elections and for self-enrichment?

By 2002 President Obasanjo’s policy interest of getting more than four new refineries built in Nigeria with better than 1000 barrel per day capacity, was well known in the Oil and Gas community in Nigeria and by  many Nigerians. It was built on a robust dream of producing four million barrels of oil and refining locally and increasing percentage to gain more than a foothold in the export market.

President Jonathan campaign train to Yenagoa Bayelsa for his re-election in 2014-2015, promised to do one new refinery.

His successor  President Buhari promised to build one new refinery each year.

20 years later, Nigeria has no realistic plan to own a working refinery to serve the domestic market and to challenge for a niche in the export market!

1. 1. There were no hints of remorse and apology for the man-made tragedy which has befallen the Nigerian economy and claiming many lives, everyday. At least one person dies in each of Nigeria’s 774 Local Governments, predictably out of avoidable causes created by helplessness from misgovermment.

This tragedy is largely due to mismanagement of the economy and a state policy of zero accountability and zero consequence for mismanagement,  by those who held top political and establishment positions since 1999.

They superinteded over the decline of the Naira exchange rate (to foreign currency) and thereby the loss of  purchasing power of most Nigerians by the day.

It has remained a rush downhill since 1999.

So it is clearly a man-made tragedy by a few people and their cronies.

1. I expected to hear about any measures to bring  to book those who have left State and Federal government advantage sectors bleeding without addition to productive capacity in any sector. Such situations will draw heavy penalties for poor performance in China, Britain, Germany, USA and other leading industrial economies.

In Nigeria, unfortunately, poor performance is backed by impunity arising from a feudal system that does not demand  competencies and performance result to keep the economy competitive at State or Federal government level.

1. Unlock the productive capacities of Nigerians by a national policy of fair access to bank credit for investments in productive Sectors and provision of progressive bank windows for working capital to achieve stated target increase in business activities in different categories.

We expected to hear an end to a selective credit system which is built on favour or loyalty,  and not on proven efficiency to promote productivity and competitive performance.

In 1975 Nigeria’s Central Bank ran a banking policy to make the commercial banking environment more Liberal to business growth and enterprise promotion. For instance bank staff went to markets and business centres to open loan accounts for business people.

Since 1999 the CBN and Nigerian banks appear to have firmly turned their backs on the average Nigerian business person.

But any Nigerian who finds a way to be announced by INEC the electoral agency, as the winner of an election to the National Assembly is an instant target of bank staff.

They will swoop and swoon around the person to market all types of loans, not below N100m!

1. We listened and read with rapt attention President Tinubu’s speech to see if a policy direction has been defined to free Nigeria’s education system from the shackles of Feudal System methodology.In which case we will see a commitment to tertiary education architecture that seeks to actualize a national human capital investment drive, by a forward- looking Nigeria that wants to be competitive and thus throw in graduated  scholarship incentives for those with high potential while an affordable minimum is provided for all. To the contrary President Tinubu’s much touted  loan scheme will punish the children of the poor, while those who steal Nigeria’s money will use such money to send their children to schools overseas at 50 times the cost of a home-based student.

1. Why is President Tinubu anxious to embrace a loan scheme that has failed in the US and Britain for instance? We wanted to read that a  dedicated funding scheme is on the way for universities, polytechnics  and relevant  institutes or agencies  to drive research for rapid industrialization, sector-based service efficiency and % improvement of export goods and services;

1. Was it too much to expect to read that President Tinibu will put the dignity of the Nigerian citizen first? He could have done so in his speech by identifying those areas that demean each citizen, especially the daily horror of abuse of citizenship rights by government establishments and the seasonal deprivation of citizenship by deliberate unwillingness to conduct free and fair elections.

(i) President Tinubu didnt see the need to constitute a Diaspora and home-based Citizens’ Committee with NLC, ASUU, Organized Private Sector and State governments to work on a deadline of 30 days to deliver a blueprint for Sector-based rapid regional industrialization?

None of that happened!!!

Rather what the President said amounted to:

First, quietly asked Nigerians to allow fuel importation to continue. Nigeria will remain as perhaps the only major oil producing country that has no working refinery or that imports Petroleum products for her domestic market. So our citizens must prepare to pay whatever the favoured importers ask for.

But President Tinubu didn’t seem to understand that petrol cost affects operation of small businesses. Giving them a loan of five million Naira each does not guarantee they can produce at a competitive rate. It is simple market economics that the cost of energy ie the price of diesel and petrol, put their operating cost beyond the buying power of citizens.

Secondly, importation of petrol will now create a new billionaire’s club for those close to government to secure import license and have the connections to source foreign currency to buy from foreign refineries and sell to Nigerians at any price.

Are we back to import license racketeering and emi lokan and “owambe party” lifestyle.

Did we wait for 64 days to hear President Tinubu again only to leanr that we are reducing the Nigerian economy to a mere raw materials producing country?

That was our status between 1860 and 1973 when we made efforts to increase minimum local manufacturing.

What is quite introguing is the penchant for successive administrations to continue the isolation of Diaspora Nigerians from becoming the engine of urgent transformation of the economy and competitive business  capacities of their States and their mother country. The President didn’t raise a word against it in his speech.

Haba!

Those points and other examples have persuaded me and millions of Nigerians to state:

President Tinubu,  after 64 days in office, you appear to be working more to make unproductive millionaires and billionaires more comfortable. It does not show that you have started working for ordinary Nigerians!

Amaopusenibo Bobo Sofiri Brown, editorial opinion contributor to USAfrica magazine and USAfricaonline.com, served as pioneer Manager of PR at NAFCON Nigeria, founder of the SUNRAY multimedia group in 1992 in Port Harcourt and is currently CEO of GRAIN Consulting.