“Surely, if President Bola Tinubu consciously and conscionably exercises presidential powers, he will reject any attempt to deify him. He will know that he has done absolutely nothing transformative and life-enhancing in his one-and-a-half years in office to deserve an airport or a university being named after him. It is a mark of the Presudent’s self-entitlement and utter insensitivity that he is making the presidency about his self-glorification and personal comfort.
Nigeria is probably the only country where a President must cocoon himself in cosy foreign hotels to “wilfully separate himself from officials, friends, and associates” in order to appoint or reshuffle his cabinet.
Of course, Nigeria is a global outlier, exceptional in many perverse ways. Here’s a country where a president can do anything, and where the citizens are indifferent to whatever their president does.
President Goodluck Jonathan once remarked that “the Nigerian president was vested with so much power that it was best to check oneself in the exercise of those powers”.
In other words, in Nigeria, only the President can check himself, no one else can check him.
And if you have a President like Tinubu who likes to exercise power arbitrarily based on his hunches and predilections, everyone just has to accept and live with the consequences.
For, let’s face it, there is no accountability for bad executive decisions or failures in Nigeria.
Think about it. A key test of leadership is judgement. A leader must exercise sound judgement and make good decisions. Tinubu fails that test.
Preeident Tinubu truth be told, in a true democracy, with proper checks and balances and accountability mechanisms, the President would be held to account for the way he has mismanaged Nigeria through poor judgements and bad decisions since he assumed power.
Well, first, peaceful protests are legitimate tools of democracy. Second, the media should be fiercely intolerant of bad governance. And, of course, third, the National Assembly should never be the President’s poodle .
But what happens in Nigeria? Well, the public and the media are all bark and no bite.
As for the National Assembly, it simply rubberstamps everything Tinubu does and rewards his failure.
For instance, it was recently reported that the National Assembly wanted to establish a university and name it after Tinubu. And some states have named airports after him.
Surely, if President Tinubu consciously and conscionably exercises presidential powers, he will reject any attempt to deify him. He will know that he has done absolutely nothing transformative and life-enhancing in his one-and-a-half years in office to deserve an airport or a university being named after him. It is a mark of the Presudent’s self-entitlement and utter insensitivity that he is making the presidency about his self-glorification and personal comfort.
According to one recent report, “the Presidency spends N16.06 billion to buy foreign currencies for international trips in one year.”
That’s the extent of President Tinubu’s profligacy and extravagance amid excruciating pains across Nigeria.
The changes in petrol price and energy costs have affected everything else, from the price of fish to milk and the cost of bread and grains.
Essential medicines are a different thing altogether.
Life is hard. But it’s been a nightmare for millions more since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government was inaugurated.
In July, The Financial Times said the hardship under President Tinubu has triggered “the worst cost of living crisis in a generation.”
The newspaper gave the president credit for tackling two of the most malignant economic problems in decades – the petrol subsidy and fixed exchange rate – but said the shock therapy was so disjointed that calling it “Tinubunomics” would be a joke.
But Nigerians hardly need a foreign newspaper to render their misery in torrid colours.
They know this was not the life promised. Tinubu pledged to prioritise security and jobs, tackle the mounting debt, and improve infrastructure when he took office.
President Tinubu came with a pro-business credential and a track record of success in Lagos that was difficult to ignore.
To be continued…….