Missing gaps in Tinubu’s 64th independence anniversary speech

 “The world is witnessing and benefiting from the can-do spirit of the Nigerian people, our massive intellectual capacity, and our enterprise and industry in all vocations, from arts to science, technology to infrastructure. The dreams that our founding fathers envisaged are still a work in progress. Every day, we put our hands on the plough, determined to do a better job of it.” – President Tinubu in his 64th independence anniversary speech yesterday, October 1, 2024.

I listened to the 22-minutes’ national broadcast of President Bola Tinubu yesterday. While it had some soundbites and generally updated the citizenry on the state of play about our country, it fell short of the expectations of many compatriots. Before I address the missing gaps, here are some of the highlights of the president’s second independence day speech since inauguration on May 29, 2023.

On the security front, the president said his administration is winning the war on terror and banditry. He said the target is to eliminate all the threats of Boko Haram, banditry, kidnapping for ransom, and the scourge of all forms of violent extremism. Within one year, he claimed his government has eliminated Boko Haram and bandit commanders faster than ever. As of the last count, over 300 Boko Haram and bandit commanders have been eliminated by our gallant troops in the Northeast, Northwest, and some other parts of the country.  While this feat is commendable, it is important to deal with the push factor which is making more Nigerians to take to crimes and criminality as means of survival. Unless this is addressed, the ground will continue to be fertile for sustainable recruitments of new felons and bandits.

The president said as a way of responding to recent natural disasters, at the last meeting of the Federal Executive Council, a Disaster Relief Fund was approved to mobilise private and public sector funds to help the country respond faster to emergencies.   Furthermore, he has ordered integrity tests of all our dams in the country to avert future disasters. On the economic front, the president said reforms have attracted foreign direct investments worth more than $30 billion since he came to power.

Still on the economy, President Tinubu said “The more disciplined approach adopted by the Central Bank to monetary policy management has ensured stability and predictability in our foreign exchange market. We inherited a reserve of over $33 billion 16 months ago. Since then, we have paid back the inherited forex backlog of $7 billion. We have cleared the ways and means debt of over N30 trillion. We have reduced the debt service ratio from 97 per cent to 68 per cent. Despite all these, we have managed to keep our foreign reserve at $37 billion. We continue to meet all our obligations and pay our bills.”

He said the FEC approved the Economic Stabilisation Bills, which will now be transmitted to the National Assembly. These transformative bills will make our business environment more friendly, stimulate investment and reduce the tax burden on businesses and workers once they are passed into law.  The need for genuine ease of doing business cannot be overemphasized.

Tinubu said his administration is resolute in its determination to implement the Supreme Court judgment on the financial autonomy of local governments. On this count, we have seen a raft of local government elections being held across states where local governments are hitherto being administered by caretaker committees. However, the quality of these elections leaves much to be desired as the ruling parties in the states where the polls are conducted end up winning all the available councillorship and chairmanship seats. These elections are more or less shambolic as opposition political parties are muscled out of the contest or State Independent Electoral Commissions conducting the elections simply announce preferred candidates of the governor.

On food production and security, the president lauded Governors of Kebbi, Niger, Jigawa, Kwara, Nasarawa, and the Southwest Governors that have embraced his agricultural production programme and urged other states to join the FG in investing in mechanised farming. He said the FG is playing its part by supplying fertilizer and making tractors and other farm equipment available. “Last week, the Federal Executive Council approved establishing a local assembly plant for 2000 John Deere tractors, combine harvesters, disc riders, bottom ploughs and other farm equipment. The plant has a completion time of six months.”

The president did not say how much of the 10 million hectares of land he promised to cultivate in his August 4, 2024 speech has been cultivated and how much quantum of increase have been recorded in food production. He also should know that despite his directive since August 4 that tariffs and other import duties should be removed on rice, wheat, maize, sorghum, drugs, and other pharmaceutical and medical supplies for the next 6 months, to help drive down the prices; costs of food, drugs and medical products remain astronomic.

The president glibly said his energy transition programme is on course and that he is expanding the adoption of the Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas for mass transit with private sector players. The question is, how many of the 3,000 CNG busses he promised since last year July 31 has been delivered?  When are we likely going to start seeing these busses plying our roads? What about the lingering turn around maintenance of the Port Harcourt refinery? When will it start production? What about the pricing of PMS with Dangote refinery? Will there ever be price stability of our petroleum products?

The president said recognising that we cannot design a future that belongs to Nigerian youths without making them its architects he is organising a National Youth Conference. This conference will be a platform to address the diverse challenges and opportunities confronting our young people. “The 30-day Confab will unite young people nationwide to collaboratively develop solutions to issues such as education, employment, innovation, security, and social justice. The modalities of this Confab and selection of delegates will be designed in close consultation with our young people through their representatives.”

This is commendable provided it will not go the way of 2014 national conference organised by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan in which over N12bn was purportedly spent to convoke a national dialogue with the outcome jettisoned. I sincerely hope this is not another jamboree. The president spoke about other youth-centric programmes such as the 3 million Technical Talents programme of the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, aimed at building Nigeria’s technical talent backbone.  He also spoke about Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which provides cheap loans to our students to pursue their tertiary educational dreams.  No mention of the amount already disbursed or number of beneficiary thus far. There is a planned launch of the Renewed Hope Labour Employment and Empowerment Programme which is conceived as a comprehensive suite of interventions at job creation by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment that is aimed at facilitating the creation of 2.5 million jobs, directly and indirectly, on an annual incremental basis.

The critical missing gaps in the president’s speech include lack of information on the number of people who have been gainfully employed by his government in its 16 months’ administration. No mention was made of number of people who have been lifted out of poverty. How many people have benefitted from its presidential initiatives on support to nano, small and medium enterprises remain unknown? No mention was made about anti-corruption initiatives; blockade of revenue leakages including stoppage of oil theft. The resident was also silent on reduction in the cost of governance and the proposed cabinet reshuffle. Lastly, the president kept mum on when Nigerian will hold the postponed National Population and Housing Census.