By Musa Kalim Gambo
Approaching the first 100 days since Bola Ahmed Tinubu took oath as the president and commander in chief of the armed and unarmed forces of our beloved federation, life seems to have taken a painful and difficult dimension. This comes from the orthopaedic approach deployed to heal our irredeemably crippled nation –now on the edge of a hopeless recuperation from the previous government’s futile attempts at ‘change’.
How did we get here? Renewed hope! We rode on the feeble back of an aged horse, ultimately believing we could reach a place distant from the troubles of our land. Tinubu inspired hope for a better nation, that life will be better for even those ‘papa-mama-pikin’ fanatics who would rather ‘waste’ their inconsequential votes, in the words of a certain Woman of God. However, Tinubu remains the best horse for this turbulent race and is just coming on board.
We shouldn’t expect birth from a government that is still on honeymoon. The intercourse is not over yet. Tinubu’s government is still on a rough foreplay with the crippled Nigerian state, so there will be no immaculate conception.
After all, Tinubu has never promised to sell PMS to anyone at a cheaper rate! He has rather, at different times, threatened to withdraw government subsidy from this critical element of our daily lives – he said, “no matter what”, he will remove the subsidy. He boldly reiterated that there was no going back when he eventually inherited a nation without such subsidy. His top two contenders made similar threats, so why are we disturbed that he is now fulfilling one of his campaign promises?
We clapped at the justification because we believed the popular narrative that a certain top few political and business elite was short-changing us in this whole subsidy deal. We did not call on the government to go after them. We just simply hold this toxic populist notion that some big men are feasting on our commonwealth, which often comes in the format of ‘them’ against ‘us’.
What should be known is that no amount of political gra-gra can flip the side of the wealth distribution coin to favour the overwhelming destitute majority in a failed system. The few profiteering elites will always find their way around unfavourable government policies and return the burden on the proletariat.
In an edition of the Daily Trust (25th July 25, 2023), President Tinubu’s Senior Special Assistant on Print Media, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, came up with the “Tinubu’s Seven Wonders in Seven Weeks” – a summary of his principal’s efforts as leader of Africa’s most populous nation, or rather the most complex and complicated country in Africa.
Abdulaziz started by reaffirming Mr President’s physical and figurative energy in grabbing some of Nigeria’s hitherto scary and untouchable issues with courage and decisiveness. Grabbing the bull of fuel subsidy and dollar rent-seeking by the horn is undoubtedly commendable – no one will disagree with Tinubu’s government. However, while Abdulaziz does his job quite well for his principal, it is possible that he is now too far and dining directly from the sound-proofed kitchen of power to hear the unending cries of the collateral victims of their policies. But Daily Trust’s editorial of July 24, 2023, which called for the reversal of Tinubu’s ‘chaotic subsidy policy’, painted a high-definition image of the situation. So it is possible that Abdulaziz’s “Tinubu’s Seven Wonders in Seven Weeks” is an attempt to neutralise the arguments contained in Daily Trust’s call for the reversal of the subsidy policy.
Now is not the time for arguments and counter-arguments; it is time to listen to the distant voices that defied the heat of the sun and, in some places, the threat to life by non-state actors to bring on board this much-anticipated government. The kindle of hope is still fresh and glowing, don’t blow it out.
Musa Kalim Gambo wrote from Zaria via gmkalim@hotmail.com.
Well said, now the hope is still fresh, don’t blow it out.
My question has always been, “if Tinubu is this good, why did he give us Buhari in the first place?”
The person that wrote this is a very heartless person, a shame to journalism and the press. How can the press defend the masses and check the government when they are beginning to lie and take sides with the very government that has hundreds of people, innocent Nigerians dying everyday because of the pure incompetence of our government. The prices of everything is hiked, millions of students who could have possibly had a future have dropped out. I’m very disappointed and have lost hope in the institution that’s supposed to be our voice. You have become a weapon of politics to push propaganda and keep us blind and mute. SHAME!!