If these first one hundred days of Tinubu’s Presidency are anything to go by, one can say without equivocation that Nigerians are in for a long time of pain and anguish.

Virtually all of Tinubu’s decisions so far have been egregious, whether nationally or on the international front. At home on 29th May 2023, the day of his inauguration as President, Tinubu brazenly announced an end to petrol subsidy in Nigeria.

Within hours of that hasty announcement, the price of petrol at the petrol filling stations jumped by 300% from 185 naira per liter to 500 naira. The price keeps on going up, and today,100 days later, the price of a liter of petrol has risen to 617 naira.

Virtually all aspects of life have been impacted negatively by the petrol price increase. Cost of transportation is the first to be impacted, followed by everything else: food, housing, medication, clothing, household items such as soap and cooking gas.

The destructive consequence of the oil price increase is also evident on a macro level. Nigeria’s economy is in grave danger of collapse.

Companies are folding up, unable to bear the cost of production. They are laying off staff in the thousands. Unemployment is therefore increasing exponentially. Even where they are not laid off, workers can’t go to work because they are unable to pay for transportation. Productivity is drastically reduced nationwide.

The situation is so dire that some state government offices and agencies have resigned themselves to operating a three day, instead of the normal five day work week.

The reduction in productivity implies a reduction in the county’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Tinubu’s failure to understand that oil in the service of transportation is the lifeline of any economy, is creating unbearable hardship for citizens, and threatening to destroy the economy.

Unfortunately for the country, Tinubu’s missteps since taking office are not limited to the removal of fuel subsidies. Consider the other corrosive policies and pronouncements:

Anti Education Policies:

Conventional thinking worldwide is that education is the antidote to poverty. It is by embracing this philosophy that India, South Korea, and Malaysia for example were able to pull their countries out of poverty, making them models of economic and social emancipation.

In the last three months, Tinubu’s attitude toward education has totally disregarded the role of education in human capacity building.

By increasing fees in federal schools and Universities, he has undermined the ability of parents to send their children to school, and consequently reduced the number of the nation’s productive work force.

His Foreign currency policy which has depreciated the value of naira from 1/ 700 to the dollar to 1/880 has had a chilling effect also on education. Form A through which foreign education costs are paid at bank rate is no longer available since the bank rate of 1/450 has been eliminated.

Online education has also been adversely affected because payment at bank rate for online courses is no longer an option. Under Tinubu’s watch, the bank rate and black market rate are virtually the same.

Another aspect of education which has been undermined by the Foreign Exchange policy is travel.

The legendary Chinese philosopher, Confucius long ago appropriately identified travel as the greatest source of education.

By voiding bank rate Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) the Tinubu administration is inadvertently placing limitations on citizens’ exposure and education. Discouraging travel also reduces potential revenue from tourism

Immoral And Reckless Proposals:

Under Tinubu, every day is another day of one outlandish proposal or the other. Not minding the constitutional separation of state and religious powers, Tinubu’s government is debating the idea of collecting license fees from Christian priests before they are allowed to mount the pulpit. Perhaps Muslim clerics will also be required to pay a fee before qualifying to say the Fathia!

Another mean spirited idea being considered is that car owners must register ownership of their vehicle annually with a 1,000 naira levy, even though all vehicles sale or purchase is accompanied by strict identification processes.

The idea of imposing tax on the informal economic sector is rather pointless. Government will be expending far more paying the salary of tax collectors than the taxes collected from petty traders, most of whom make less than 3,000 naira profit per day.

As in everything else, Tinubu will put the cart before the horse. He fails to realise that it is imperative for the government to provide an enabling environment for marketers before demanding taxes from them. Otherwise, operators of the informal economic sector will continue to be harassed and abused by local government touts as they are presently in the society.

A proposal to increase electricity tariff by 40% is another one of Tinubu’s ill-conceived ideas. Such an increase is hostile to citizens and detrimental to business. For the people, already suffering from the recent astronomical increase in cost of petrol, and the overall high cost of living, triggered by removal of petrol subsidy, an increase in cost of electricity will be another crushing blow.

Reacting to what it termed punitive economic policies, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), called on all unions in the critical sectors of the economy and its 52 other affiliates to shut the government down on 5th and 6th September 2023. NLC was determined to dramatize its opposition to Tinubu’s draconian economic measures.

Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, ( NUPENG), National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Telecommunications and Communications Union, and National Union of Bankers, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE) have all come together to express their displeasure with the Tinubu led administration with this September strike action. Nigeria Labour Congress called it a warning, which could lead to an indefinite strike action if Tinubu does not bring down the price of petrol, and reverse his other anti-people policies

Shortsighted Economic Policies:

All the revenue needed to develop the Nation’s economy can be obtained without elimination of petroleum pump price if in the short run government tackles corruption, waste and inefficiency in major government agencies like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). In the long term, the President must take the bold step of championing a review of the 1999 Constitution to the effect of enabling state control of minerals within their jurisdiction.

If the Nigerian economy is to achieve its full potential, the constitution must be reset to allow states determine ways to develop their mineral resources, instead of depending on Federal Government approval as is the case currently.

With such a review, Ondo State which is sitting on the third largest deposit of bitumen in the world, Enugu State with the ninth highest reserve of natural gas in the world, and other states with abundance of gold, uranium, bauxite, led and lithium can add trillions of dollars to the country’s existing oil revenue.

Under these circumstances, Nigeria has the potential of becoming one of the wealthiest counties in the world.

This country has no reason to remove oil subsidies. In fact, in addition to subsidizing petrol price, a responsible government is obliged to provide subsidies in transportation, health, food, education, housing, and electricity. Tinubu should realise that it is the extent to which he is able to do this which will determine the success or failure of his administration.

A Perilous Foreign Policy:

Within 60 days of his administration, Tinubu’s foreign policy aptitude came under scrutiny, and sad to say, he failed miserably.

On July 26, 2023, a military junta in the country of Niger Republic announced that it had ousted its democratically elected president, President Mohamed Bozoum.

Three days later, with little or no consultation, and without waiting to dialogue with the coup d’etat plotters in Niger, Bola Tinubu, newly elected President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), approached Nigeria’s National Assembly with a request to prepare to go to war against Niger.

Just as he had done with the removal of petrol subsidy, Tinubu approached the Niger question without proper introspection, without considering the implications of his action; with what gives the impression of childish bravado, and youthful exuberance.

Nigeria has nothing to gain, but all to lose in a war with the Republic of Niger. Consider the potential for destruction; The Nigerian led forces will be confronting the combined military of Mali, Guinea, Bokina Faso in addition to that of Niger. The Russian Wagner Forces will join them. Nigerian led ECOWAS forces will be dissipated.

Not only does Niger share a common border with seven Nigerian States; Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina,Yobe, Jigawa, and Borno States, the land space of Niger actually forms an arc over Northern Nigeria. It is easy to see how the war will close in Nigeria and leave it helpless.

Niger Republic can quite feasibly lay siege on Nigeria from up the North. It will cut off economic activities, such as supply of the much needed agricultural produce from the North.

Then there is the thorny question of troop loyalty. Does Tinubu know the percentage of Nigerian soldiers that are actually Nigeriens?

A war against Niger will be the greatest misadventure in Nigeria’s history. It will exacerbate the fragile North – South divide. It will sever the North from the South. It will lead to enumerable loss of lives, and most likely destroy the Nigerian economy.

To summarize, in his first 100 days in office, Tinubu has demonstrated that he is a man who is quick to act without considering the consequences of his actions.

The key responsibilities of any government to its citizens are the provision of a secured environment, the promotion of positive economic policies, and the establishment of fairness and equity in governance. So far Tinubu’s administration is flawed in all three areas.

He has been oblivious of the suffering of citizens. He was quick to remove oil subsidy claiming it to be an economic burden on the country. Meanwhile, his bloated administration of 48 Ministers and hundreds of support staff; the most expensive in the nation’s history may actually prove to be financially damaging to the nation.

Insecurity has gone unchecked. In parts of the north, farmers are unable to go to farms because of fear of bandits. Whole communities are held hostage by terrorist gangs who extort taxes from defenceless citizens.

Travelling from one state to another state is perilous as citizens are abducted from public transportation vehicles, and those traveling in private vehicles fall prey to armed robbers.

Insecurity in the South – South and South -East geopolitical zones is getting worse because this administration has failed to address the issue of the growing influence of warlords and secessionist groups in the area.

And in the area of governance, Tinubu’s choice of ministers has been criticized by many as a demonstration of his poor sense of judgment. It is a recycling of ‘ deadwood ‘ failed, former governors and misfits.

Pastor Bakare, the influential Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC) believes that most of these ministers have been brought on board simply as beneficiaries of government patronage.

It is unfortunate, but all that one is able to decipher in the first 100 days of Tinubu’s Presidency is a dysfunctional administration, led by a megalomaniac, and the unveiling of an apocalyptic social and political order.