This week, President Bola Tinubu assured that his administration would work tirelessly to revamp the nation’s economy and create viable opportunities for young people to meaningfully participate in an inclusive, labour-intensive economy, the objective, he said, is to ensure that businesses thrive in a secure and decent economic environment.
The President said this Wednesday at the State House in Marina, Lagos state, during a town hall meeting with traditional rulers, chairpersons of Local Governments and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) and other political office holders in the state.
He said Nigeria, under his Renewed Hope Administration, is undergoing a process of financial re-engineering and appealed to citizens to be patient and supportive of the ongoing reforms which are bound to transform the economy for the better.
“The financial re-engineering of our country is ongoing. We are determined to deliver Nigeria safely through the tunnel of hope, stability, and economic prosperity,” he said. “Nigeria is in good hands. The team is working, and we will work hard to give you the best economy and the best opportunities that you can imagine.”
However, while it is agreed that the work of rebuilding Nigeria is monumental, as the President himself acknowledged, and while it is also accepted that this administration is doing its best to ensure that Nigeria meets its economic development targets, there is the need for a radical shift in the governance structure of the country. Research has shown that no society that benefits only a privileged few ever makes any meaningful progress.
Instead of investing in an economy that expands opportunities and benefits everyone, the privileged few in the political class and their cronies in the private sector would rather use the country’s resources to provide good healthcare for themselves and secure their future and the future of their progeny.
Thankfully, the Tinubu-led administration has realised that the system that excludes a large majority of the country, where over 100 million people are living below the poverty line, has to end for Nigeria to seriously chart a new course.
Otherwise, the government would continue churning out fancy policies and new targets for achieving development milestones that would never be attained.
Some of the critical things this administration needs to encourage include having statesmen who are sacrificial and visionary, and who prioritise the greater good, inclusive economic models that incentivize innovation, a truly accountable governance structure that ensures the plurality of voices, mass qualitative education for all Nigerians and an effective justice system that advances the rule of law.
Others are a new orientation and culture that rewards and celebrates hard work, integrity and discipline and a free market system with a combination of even-handed state controls.
A lot can happen in eight years. A nation can transform itself within this period. Countries like Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam have shown that it is possible. Nigeria hasn’t utilised the past 60 years to achieve progress.
Nevertheless, we must look forward with hope. Over the next seven years, we can’t be singing the same tune of failed promises and failed targets. We need laser-focused attention on investing in human development.
We need to make concrete plans to attain some clear development goals within an identified period. We need to change the structure of our polity to enable every government institution to align with the pursuit of those goals.
It’s often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. In truth, that’s what we have been doing in this country. We have been recycling the same people with the same ideas within the same system that has not worked. Why do we think it would change?
This administration, ably led by Tinubu, needs to alter the course of this nation for the benefit of the millions of people who have no jobs, no education, no access to power and no healthcare. This administration owes it to them. It owes it to the future. It is time for Nigeria to rise and be the true giant of Africa under the leadership of Tinubu.
However, again, as the President has said, “This job is monumental” and it is not a one-man job. Indeed, it is a collective task and Nigerians, collectively, have to work to rebuild their country for their benefit and that of future generations.
After all, recalling his tenure as a governor of Lagos state, the President said: ‘‘To turn the ship around from cascading into turbulence and making it work was not easy. But we went through it, and today, Lagos remains the most viable state in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and it will continue on the path of glory.”
So, Nigerians should pray for their country to prosper and be on the path of glory under Tinubu.
On the oint responsibilities for peace…
Indeed, to stand any chance of overcoming widespread and growing insecurity, Nigeria must adopt a more holistic approach that simultaneously combines combatting security threats more effectively with addressing the root causes of conflicts and agitations in the country.
Of course, the current military engagements should be sustained, but it should be noted that the nature, pattern and trend of security challenges confronting Nigeria cannot be dealt with efficiently using military power alone.
Addressing only the manifestations of insecurity without tackling its drivers is akin to merely cutting off the tail of a dangerous snake while keeping intact its head and the rest of its body.
Gratefully, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu clearly understood the above way of reasoning as evidenced in his recent statement that the federal and state governments have a mutual responsibility to ensure the country’s peace and stability.
Speaking during a meeting with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) at his residence in Lagos, the President reiterated his condemnation of the latest killings in Plateau state.
Addressing the governors, the President issued a stern directive to security agencies to halt the carnage in Plateau state and intensify the pursuit of those responsible for the recent tragic events in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi Local Government Areas.
Condoling the victims, the President emphasised the sanctity of human life. He said: “Nigeria needs peace and stability to move forward. Nigeria belongs to all of us, and we have to take care of it.”
With virtually all the 36 states of the federation contending with one form or multiple forms of insecurity, Nigeria is currently battling generalised insecurity where hardly any state of the country is spared.
Therefore, for any attempt at addressing the growing menace to be effective and sustainable, it needs to be holistic, just as the President urges the state governments to work with the federal government, deftly combining hard, military solutions with soft approaches aimed at tackling the socio-economic underpinnings of conflict and crime.
Of course, this method of fighting insecurity cannot be employed by the federal government alone if the goal of defeating insecurity is to be achieved by the country.
It should be noted that insecurity does not thrive in a vacuum. Some factors are precursory to it include the ineffective and inadequate security architecture, ineffective and insufficient criminal justice system, easy access to small arms and light weapons, the existence of porous borders, easy access to illicit drugs, the prevalence of poverty and unemployment, impact of climate change, multiplication of unaddressed socio-political and economic grievances, poor land use policies, agitations over resource control, and failure to address structural and constitutional deficiencies.
To address the socio-economic underpinnings of conflicts and crimes, the Tinubu-led administration, working with the states, should be bold to review the Land Use Act and other extant laws, provide education and skills training to youths in conflict areas, prioritise dialogue and alternative conflict resolution mechanisms.
The administration should also strengthen legislative and judicial responses to ensure quick dispensation of justice, embrace the use of strategic communications to win the hearts and minds of the populace, address abuses by the security forces, control access to arms and drugs and embrace a national healing process.
Thankfully, the President, while meeting with the governors, appreciated the need for joint responsibility and closer collaboration between the federal and state governments to foster rapid infrastructural development in every part of the nation.
“I want us to discard federal, state, or rural road classifications,” he said. “We must regard development as a joint responsibility. Let us prioritise our children. The school feeding programme must return quickly, beginning from the local government to the state and federal governments. We must be ready to protect our children and prepare them for the future.”
Thankfully too the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), the umbrella of the governors, and Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, assured of the state governments’ support for the bold decisions and reforms initiated by President Tinubu’s administration.
