₦airaland Forum

A year into President Bola Tinubu’s tenure, the infectious optimism of liberty, economic progress, security, and well-being heralding his inauguration on May 29, 2023, has turned to dying embers. In the President’s first year, all Nigerians see is hopelessness, misery, privations, and pain. The despair is evident in the numbers: the cost-of-living crises, hyperinflation, joblessness, and naira depreciation.

Amidst the supercilious backslapping in government circles, poverty, and bloodshed are intensifying. Tinubu should retrace his steps in the remaining years of his tenure to bequeath a redoubtable legacy to the country.

Under Tinubu, Nigeria is a harsh contrast to Abraham Lincoln’s “Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Instead, only a tiny band of politicians, their families, and sycophants are laughing all the way to the bank. From his “subsidy is gone” pronouncement on Inauguration Day, which cancelled petrol subsidies, chronic hardship has defined his tenure.

From N187 per litre pre-Tinubu, petrol now sells between N568/l and N800/l. Without well-implemented safety nets, most citizens have found it difficult to cope with the astronomical rise in transportation and food costs. This has heightened poverty. It stood at 46 per cent in 2023 or 104 million citizens, per the World Bank.

Two other policies have combined to bankrupt citizens. The first is the merger of the naira rates through floatation. The second is the cancellation of subsidies for Band A electricity consumers in April.

Consequently, the naira has depreciated significantly. It exchanged at N464 per $1 in May 2023, plunged to N1,900/$1 early in 2024 before trading at around N1,400/$1 currently despite a raft of artificial policies to shore up its value. By February, it had lost 68 per cent of its value.

The impact goes beyond Nigeria. Formerly reckoned as Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria has ceded the top three continental slots to South Africa, Egypt, and Algeria respectively. It is now fourth in Africa with a GDP of $252.73 billion on the back of currency depreciation.

From N68 per kilowatt-hour, the tariff for the Band A segment climbed to N225/kWh before dropping to N206.80/kWh in May.

On the monetary policy side, the Central Bank of Nigeria has moved the benchmark interest rate from 18.50 per cent in May 2023 to 26.25 per cent, after three consecutive hikes in 2024.

All this has jerked up prices, though the Tinubu government is yet to implement a wage review. He met the national minimum wage of N30,000 per month. Businesses are complaining about the increased costs of borrowing funds.

In April, inflation spiked to a 28-year high of 33.69 per cent. Food inflation worsened to 40.63 per cent. Imports are priced steeply because of the depreciation of the naira. This is devastating to everyday living. Medicines are out of reach of citizens.

Tinubu, who has fulfilled his lifelong ambition to govern Nigeria, assumed office during the economic downturn. But there was hope initially of a revival after a largely successful eight-year tenure in Lagos State (1999-2007). In truth, that optimism is blowing in the wind.

Under him, governance is not much different from the preceding era of locusts supervised by the clueless Muhammadu Buhari (2015-2023). Abductions and killings are an epidemic. This is reminiscent of the Biafra Civil War (1967-1970).

While 63,111 died in violence on Buhari’s watch, 6,931 were killed in Tinubu’s first 10 months. Beacon Security and Intelligence counted 2,583 killings in the first quarter under Tinubu. SBM Intelligence reported 4,777 abductions when Tinubu assumed office to early May 2023. The worst-hit states are Plateau, Benue, Kaduna, Niger, Zamfara, Kogi, Katsina and Borno.

Beyond regular meetings with the security chiefs, Tinubu seems to have no strategy for taming the violence. His lack of a plan is seen in the rampage by bandits, Islamic terrorists, Fulani herdsmen attacks on farmers, and abductions across the country. Like Buhari, Tinubu ensconces himself in the Aso Rock fortress without identifying with the victims of violence by visiting the scene of the crime. He should show more empathy.

Undoubtedly, state capture has not receded in the past year. It is business as usual for the degenerate political class. Take the National Assembly. To undertake constituency projects – a cesspool of sleaze – ranking senators directly received between N200 million and N500 million in their accounts. This is wasteful, a brazen extortion of the commonwealth. Strangely, Tinubu applauded the lawmakers, saying “your integrity is intact!” It is not; it is state capture.

Nigeria still suffers from massive electricity shortages under Tinubu. The only good aspect is installed capacity, which hit 14,000 megawatts in 2023. It has not affected supply: the sole national grid often collapses if fed more than 4,000MW.

True, Tinubu inherited a hollow economy with a debt stock of N87 trillion (centre alone). The infrastructure is shabby, needing $150 billion annually over 30 years to bridge, per the World Bank. Social services, particularly education and health, are in a shambles.

Undeniably, it is not all bad news. Apart from speedily delivering the rehabilitation of the Third Mainland Bridge, and the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway in Lagos, the 700-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway at N15 trillion over seven years is ambitious. Abandoned since conception in 1978, the Tinubu administration is commencing work on the 1,000km Badagry-Sokoto Highway. This is in addition to the 330 federal roads and bridges the President virtually commissioned on Sunday. Combined, these projects are expected to begin an era of infrastructural renewal. Tinubu should ensure that none of them is abandoned.

Regularly, the military scores big against Islamic terrorists in the North-East. This has limited the reach of the insurgents.

The economy is suffering partly because of the importation of petroleum products. This reportedly gulps between 30 and 40 per cent of forex, putting enormous pressure on the naira. With the Dangote Refinery set to commence the production of petrol, the economy is set for a boost. The positive effect of the Dangote Refinery is already being felt in the cost of diesel.

As he embarks on the second year of his four-year term, Tinubu should govern with more compassion. He should cut back on his travels and be there for Nigerians during celebrations and mourning.

The President’s private sector background should quicken the pace of economic growth to reclaim its pride of place on the continent.

Surprisingly, he has not embarked on privatisation. Tinubu should privatise the refineries, the airports, seaports, the Ajaokuta Steel Company, and the railways. This will save the government on running costs and boost foreign direct investment.

The President should redirect focus on security. Without this, farming and business will continue to depress. There is a growing trend of brutality among the security agencies. They are abducting journalists with impunity. This is against the rule of law. Nigeria is no longer under a military regime so Tinubu should rein in their excesses.

His cabinet is bloated. He should have a compact team of performers to reduce the cost of governance.

Tinubu is toeing the path of his predecessors on restructuring. This is ludicrous. It is wishful thinking to believe that Nigeria will make progress without restructuring. The President should make restructuring a priority. It will unleash Nigeria’s productive capacity, rebuild trust in governance, improve security, and de-escalate inter-ethnic tensions.

Punch Editorial Board

https://punchng.com/tinubus-first-anniversary-era-of-pain/

Tell me where is the lie. Tinubu one year anniversary is like 100 years of suffering and agony. The people PBAT surrounded himself with are his great enemies for not telling him what we Nigerians are passing through.

By now as a leader you should have open the border and see how some things can be coming in especially food. It is now very clear that our military effort in the North is not enough to curb in the insecurity and this has been the major reason of the hike price of food.

Imagine a delica of red beans is around #1600.00 while white beans is #1400.00.
A delica of rice is now #1300 depending the area and the worst now is pepper. Imagine #1000.00 naira pepper is not enough to cook just one sachet of spaghetti.

An egg is now #150-#200 and a bag of sachet water/puter water is now #400.00, Tinubu why? Why naaa, you wan use hunger take kill us ?

Toh

helinues:
Toh

Office Secretary needed at Idumota.

Make una enjoy am peacefully until una get sense by force.

You saw a man that said;
1) I'll continue from where Buhari stopped, una go vote for am.

2) No statistics we go chop, una go vote for am to teach Obidient lessons.

3) A Man that didn't do any meaningful thing in Lagos as governor bug taxed the State to death, una go vote for him.

4) A Man that his life and education is shredded in controversy, una go vote for him.

Good news is that, Tinubu still get 6 years 11 months and 28 days to good (both first and second term).

Nigeria must get sense by force when Tinubu is done dealing with Nigeria.

The heat is spreading.

Tinubu is seen by the majority of Nigerian youths as a criminal. The youths rejected him because they believed he has had a lifetime of crime.

unfortunately some old Nigerians benefiting from the corrupt system decided to ensure they support Tinubu to steal his way to office, even if it meant brutalizing voters at polling units or just rigging election in entire states without caution.

The result is a broken system. Nigerian youths got wiser, many of them who worked hard and contributed to the Nigerian economy ran away (japa) after the election, they're still running away as we speak.

The ones who couldn't run turned to crime, even the old ones who did not believe in crime are already losing interest in the country. By this time next year whatever is left of the Nigerian economy we'll all witness it.

My advise for any one that care to listen is go hustle the 21 century way... making money in this era is not by hard work or intelligence, and find a way to do business out side Nigeria like that you'll have no complain..... if you do internatnal busniness watch this my short video on USA


https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4CD79pWczSE

hmmm

It is well

It is only APC sIaves who say otherwise.
They'll come online and act like everything is fine, but offline, they're complaining and lamenting.
😂

madridguy:
Tell me where is the lie. Tinubu one year anniversary is like 100 years of suffering and agony. The people PBAT surrounded himself with are his great enemies for not telling him what we Nigerians are passing through.

By now as a leader you should have open the border and see how some things can be coming in especially food. It is now very clear that our military effort in the North is not enough to curb in the insecurity and this has been the major reason of the hike price of food.

Imagine a delica of red beans is around #1600.00 while white beans is #1400.00.
A delica of rice is now #1300 depending the area and the worst now is pepper. Imagine #1000.00 naira pepper is not enough to cook just one sachet of spaghetti.

An egg is now #150-#200 and a bag of sachet water/puter water is now #400.00, Tinubu why? Why naaa, you wan use hunger take kill us ?

Madridguy, this is Uhuru o

madridguy:
Tell me where is the lie. Tinubu one year anniversary is like 100 years of suffering and agony. The people PBAT surrounded himself with are his great enemies for not telling him what we Nigerians are passing through.

By now as a leader you should have open the border and see how some things can be coming in especially food. It is now very clear that our military effort in the North is not enough to curb in the insecurity and this has been the major reason of the hike price of food.

Imagine a delica of red beans is around #1600.00 while white beans is #1400.00.
A delica of rice is now #1300 depending the area and the worst now is pepper. Imagine #1000.00 naira pepper is not enough to cook just one sachet of spaghetti.

An egg is now #150-#200 and a bag of sachet water/puter water is now #400.00, Tinubu why? Why naaa, you wan use hunger take kill us ?

Bros I thought you were at the forefront of tinubus campaign what happened ?

We are finished if things continue like this

Thank God for Tinubu supporters,.

At least most of them are very satisfied now.

Had it been Tinubu did not taste the seat of presidency, most of them would have been disturbing us on how Tinubu would have been the best president NIGERIA never had.

If they still want to continue the suffering for another four years, we can still happily allow them to go on.

What I have found out over the years is that when people enter that AsoRock.. they become suddenly isolated from the Nigerian reality. They lack the ability to empathise or even understand what the common peope are going through. Some have attributed it to a juju in Aso rock.. Some have attributed it to sycophants around the corridors of power who continue to tell the leader that he's doing well for their own crumbs of bread to be assured.

The only thing that would bring relief is for the leader to retrace his steps from the mistake made on Day-1. If not, all the so-called efforts would be like rounding a Clock and back at 1.. The biggest injury to the economy was the messed-up foreign exchange.. at 1,500, it's well operating above the realm of Nigerians.. Our foreign exchange should be within 300-500.

Picture it this way, if the current administration can achieve the state the country was when they took over, they would ask you to roll out the drums for them.. Don't let them deceive you that the country was 'haemorrhaging' with subsidy payment when they came.. but they too are currently paying over 5trillion in subsidy every year. Triple what it was when they took over. They are also currently borrowing and printing money with reckless abandon. So aside suffering the people and putting them in Hunger, what have they changed or stopped doing?!..🤔🤔

The National Assembly alone is also putting alot of strain on our scarce resources.. what a few people there are gulping is not commensurate with the Nigerian reality and everyone pretends like all is well.

The leadership of the country waiting out for the people to get used to the pain and move on, is most unfortunate. That can't be called Leadership. That is irrespónsible leadership taken to a level never before seen!.

*drops pen ✍️🏻

🚶🏽‍♂️🚶🏽‍♂️🚶🏽‍♂️🚶🏽‍♂️

Blaze14k:
Bros I thought you were at the forefront of tinubus campaign what happened ?

Hand don meet am..

Them say na obi go suffer . I am sure obi is sufferying now..

Useless president . Everybody is complaining about his evil government

Expecting to see Soyinka debunk what punch editorial wrote. Or better still also awaiting those miscreants who have decided to hide away from the truth to come out and say obi paid punch, or that obi would have failed as well.
Very soon, hunger and pains will reunite us again to fight this evil politicians that divided us along tribal and religious lines.

We don't need to wait until 3 years more to see the failure staring at us Anya Anya.

They say na from the smell of fart, you go know how the real poopoo go be.
Nigerians are going through pains, deep pains right now.
May God continue to punish everyone that foisted this government on us and also those that are still supporting this government even at this point.
It's not about tribe and religion or party, it's about competence. Even if a goat is competent or deemed competent, we as a people should have voted for it and not support a man who obviously has come to steal, kill and destroy Nigeria. Cluelessness of the highest order

The igbos are flourishing

I no go talk anything......

Emilokan drug lord is a disaster.

Even punch too...is the brown envelope becoming slimmer abi inflation is affecting the content?
Cos this editorial is unbecoming. They have all been quiet since, why the noise now?

🤔

Next election, votes will be bought again and the same cycle will repeat itself, I give APC kudos they played the tribalism card and everyone bought into it

Nigerians should stop copying the whites in everything that they do. . we are different. Democracy isnt for us. .

madridguy:
Tell me where is the lie. Tinubu one year anniversary is like 100 years of suffering and agony. The people PBAT surrounded himself with are his great enemies for not telling him what we Nigerians are passing through.

By now as a leader you should have open the border and see how some things can be coming in especially food. It is now very clear that our military effort in the North is not enough to curb in the insecurity and this has been the major reason of the hike price of food.

Imagine a delica of red beans is around #1600.00 while white beans is #1400.00.
A delica of rice is now #1300 depending the area and the worst now is pepper. Imagine #1000.00 naira pepper is not enough to cook just one sachet of spaghetti.

An egg is now #150-#200 and a bag of sachet water/puter water is now #400.00, Tinubu why? Why naaa, you wan use hunger take kill us ?

Hunger don touch Agbado boy😂😂😂