By Prof. Abdussamad Umar Jibia
It is no longer news that the Asiwaju Bola Ahmad Tinubu-led Federal Government has been inviting anyone it considers influential to help it prevail on Nigerian youth to stop the planned August 1-10 protests. The organisers of the protest, as I was told in most of the social media platforms I asked, are hunger, insecurity, and poverty, among the other things mentioned by the angry youth.
Food sufficiency and security of lives and property are the necessary requirements for the prosperous living of any society. Every other thing follows.
The fact about the people Tinubu has been inviting is that Nigerians consider them part of their problem. Traditional and religious rulers, politicians, etc., no longer command the respect they used to command in those days. A hungry man is angry with every other person, including a fellow hungry man. So, how can they listen to the pot-bellied traditional and religious leaders of these days?
Certain other things have not been helpful to Tinubu. At this critical moment of his administration, he should not have allowed the controversy around Dangote Refinery to surface. Even before the removal of the oil subsidy, we were told that the Dangote refinery would provide a final solution to the problem of fuel supply, which has been part of our national life for a few decades. Just as production is set to begin properly, we are being told that Dangote refined fuel is not good after all and that the refinery has not been licenced. How do you expect Nigerians to be happy?
Since the altercation between Dangote and NNPC officials started, Nigerians have become aware of the Tinubu family’s underground oil business. I was just reading an essay in a social media group about how Oando, a Tinubu family-owned company, began to refine oil in Malta and export it to Nigeria through a series of underground moves.
True or false, the story is now well known to every Nigerian who can afford a China-made Android phone. The onus is on the Tinubu administration to give its own side of this story. Until then, Nigerians will continue to believe that the Dangote Refinery initiative is being killed to advance the personal interests of the President. Would that not be enough to mobilise them to protest?
However, President Tinubu can avert the protests by taking certain bold steps, which would only take a patriotic leader to implement.
Tinubu, as a devout Muslim, can copy from Umar bn Abdulazeez, an Umayyad Caliph. Before Umar became the leader of the caliphate, he led a very lavish lifestyle like his wife, who was a princess of the caliphate. As soon as he assumed office, Ibn Abdulazeez put all his wealth and that of his family into the public treasury. He lived the rest of his life humbly and died honourably. Today, he is remembered as one of the best examples of leadership in human history. Is that too much for President Tinubu?
Mr President should remove every obstacle around the proper take-off of the Dangote refinery. It doesn’t matter whether or not Alhaji Aliko Dangote supported the APC candidate in the 2023 presidential election. Dangote is a Nigerian, and Nigerians stand to gain from his investment. The Federal Government should provide the refinery with Nigeria’s crude oil and make sure the price falls to the barest affordable minimum without short-changing the investor. Note that the present hardship confronting Nigerians began with the removal of subsidy and the rise of fuel pump price.
President Tinubu should give licences to other Nigerians who want to set up refineries. As a matter of national policy, the importation of refined petroleum products must stop immediately.
The Tinubu Government should give a timeline it can stick to for the resumption of operations of its three refineries. Nigerians are aware that billions of Naira are spent every month on personnel and overhead costs for refineries that are not working. On the other hand, hardworking Nigerians are now being promised a paltry N70,000 as minimum wage.
Banditry and kidnapping must be ended to achieve food security and protect lives and property. To do so, President Tinubu should remove all bandits’ sympathisers from his government and give an ultimatum to his commanders to target and neutralise all bandits’ leaders, some of whom are now traditional rulers. Leaders of criminals are well known to the people and to the Government. It takes the will of the federal government to confront them.
Ending banditry and kidnapping would also effectively close down all IDP camps and return all campers to the farm.
That is not all. The Federal Government should return the cost of electricity as they met it. This should be announced and effected immediately. It is noteworthy that Gencos and Discos were sold to public facilities at giveaway prices. Thus, they do not have the moral right to charge Nigerians prohibitively for their services, which, by the way, are not satisfactorily delivered.
The National Assembly can also play its own part by suspending its recess and taking a decision to end the regime of billions of Naira getting into the bank accounts of its members in the name of constituency projects and all manner of allowances. They should earn a salary equivalent to that of a senior civil servant in a Federal Ministry.
To show their seriousness, all senators and rep members should immediately return SUVs bought for them with public funds. State commissioners are more numerous and use similar official vehicles even though they are not elected. This has been the argument of National Assembly members since 1999, but it is not valid. State commissioners have ministries under them, and you, as National leaders, are supposed to set an example for others to follow.
If this Government can do the above, and immediately too, it would have the moral authority to confront anyone who goes to the street to call for an end to bad governance.
The constitutional conferences, restructuring, resource control, INEC, EFCC, etc., are all political and do not directly affect the common man on the street.
Professor Abdussamad Umar Jibia wrote via aujibia@gmail.com.