EXPRESSO By STEVE OSUJI
Today is exactly three years since President Bola Tinubu was installed as Nigeria’s president. For the country and her citizens, these years have been defined by hellish regression and hopelessness.
Sad times may be okay if the road ahead was bright and beautiful. But nay, President Tinubu didn’t only cause pains all round, he also quenched the lights for most of the population, leaving them disoriented and hapless.
WHERE’S THE LIGHT YOU PROMISED US:
Talking about offing the lights of Nigerians, everyone in the country remembers vividly, President Tinubu’s vow that he be chased out of office by Nigerians should he fail to resolve Nigeria’s electricity conundrum.
Tinubu didn’t only fall on his face on this promise, he epitomised ineptitude by this very vow. Hardly any additional lines or sub-stations have been added successfully to the national grid. Not even the much vaunted Siemens project initiated by President Mohammadu Buhari was followed up to any logical conclusion till today. The power grid, such strategic infrastructure has therefore operated more in the breach since May 2023.
While we remember Buhari’s Power Minister, Babatunde Fashola for further driving grid expansion and inviting new power plants, Tinubu’s Minister in charge of power Ademola Adelabu was more interested in building his Oyo guber political structure than power infrastructure.
If any metric defines Tinubu’s lack of capacity and indeed, his dereliction as number one, it’s this matter of power.
The electricity situation got so bad under Tinubu’s watch in the last three years that Presidential Palace has to be taken off the national grid.
Three years in office, Tinubu has removed himself from his failure and the power failure he created by building a rambling, ugly grid of solar panels to light up his abode.
This action says simply, that our president is not only incompetent, he is callous and lacking in any iota of empathy.
In three years, Tinubu only succeeded in exonerating himself from his failure. In better ordered climes, Tinubu would not dare to contest for a second term of office. Indeed, his political career would have been abruptly short- circuited. He would have gone home ignominiously if he didn’t go to jail.
NOTHING TO REPORT:
Beyond Tinubu’s colossal failure to sort Nigeria’s electricity, he has really not shown acumen in any sector of the economy. If Tinubu prepared to be president of Nigeria, he hasn’t manifested it yet.
There’s nothing really positive to report so far by this government.
In fact, Nigeria is at her worst place in her 66 years of history. Here’s an abridged checklist:
*Insecurity Ravages the land and the president is clueless as to what to do. It took the direct intervention of the US President, Donald Trump to push back the rampaging Fulani and Isis marauders who threatened to overrun Tinubu’s Nigeria.
Trump had to brazenly launch a guided missile attack all the way from the US without the express permission or even knowledge of Nigeria’s president.
Nigerians and indeed, the world were at once scandalised and relieved. While her sovereignty was assaulted, she was rescued from shame and derision.
The recent attack of pupils in a school in Oyo State and the gruesome beheading of a teacher is the latest testament to the prostrate position Nigeria is three years after Tinubu.
*Corruption Rages on with fingers pointing upwards to the seat of power.
*Debt piles up as if there’s no tomorrow.
*Tinubu seems to know nothing about production, productivity and value addition. Big manufacturers have been squeezed so much that many have relocated. Crazy taxes, spike in costs of production have stymied production. Agriculture has been virtually abandoned in the last three years with food imports killing off the little gains of the Buhari era.
*His idea of economic reforms are impulsive pronouncements and slogans that lead nowhere and are shorn of positive deliverables. Mercifully, the administration has quietened down about reforms in the last few months. This is probably because the so-called reform is yielding only extreme poverty and misery.
*Official wastages and Recklessness in the management of public funds are the signposts of this administration.
*Nigeria has never been more divided along ethnic and religious lines at no other times than now. The list is endless.
Nigeria has been reported to be the second most terrorised country in the world today. More Nigerians have been slaughtered in cold blood under Tinubu’s watch than at any other time.
Final Analysis: There’s really nothing redeeming about the Tinubu government so far. Tinubu’s country is already a lost cause. Nothing can be done in the last one year but politics… Crude politics!
Again, we must close with that singular incident of America launching a missiles attack on terrorists in Nigeria without the knowledge of the government. It presents Nigeria as a hollow edifice that has no claims to basic defence system.
Let’s just conclude that Tinubu’s era is irredeemable. There’s no direction. There’s no thought leadership. This column wagers it’s the likes of Gilbert Chargoury who are thinking for this government.
This failure has no measure in Nigeria’s history.
LAST LINE
Today, yours truly commits his dear mother, Mama, Jemimah Iheonunekwu OSUJI to earth. It is a sobering moment though she was 91.
She was my rock and abiding strength. She taught me to pray, most especially, and she represented the perfect feminine beauty for me.
I miss her already.
But beautiful memories of her will longer through time.
Go well Mama m.##
