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Opinion/Feature

If I were Tinubu – Part 2: A dream team and prayer warrior

Published

2 years ago

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#NigeriaDecides: Tinubu Defeats Atiku In Jigawa, Wins 19 Of 27 LGAs

 

 

By Segun Adeleye

 

A prophet is regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God. But is Tinubu also among the prophets?

 

For the strategists and those close to the President – Elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, if there is something they must encourage him not to stop doing; it is not to stop speaking from his mind, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

We have been living witnesses to the confirmation of the power of word. As the Word became flesh, we are what we say and what we say defines us.

 

When Tinubu made his now famous ‘emi l’okan’ (it’s my turn) remark at a campaign gathering in Abeokuta on June 3, 2022, there was nothing to show that he wanted to be disrespectful to the establishment. But he portrayed a picture of assertiveness by someone that knew what he wanted. Same thing was his involvement in the ‘o to gee’ (enough is enough) movement that toppled the Saraki political dynasty in Kwara State in the 2019 general elections.

 

As if that was not enough, Tinubu no doubt tactically kicked against the policies and posture of the outgoing Muhammadu Buhari presidency in the build-up to this year’s general election with his campaign performance at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta, on Wednesday January 25 when he said, “Let fuel be expensive; only they know where they kept it. Keep petrol, keep the naira, we will vote and be elected. You may change the ink of naira notes. What you expect will not happen. We will win. They thought they could cause trouble; they sabotaged fuel but with or without fuel, with or without motorcycles and tricycles, we will vote and win. This is a superior revolution. We will take over government through our PVCs. Even if they say there is no fuel, we will trek to the polling units.”

If these were not prophecies, then we must go elsewhere to seek for another definition.

 

Vision is to be written and made plain upon tables, “that he may run that readeth it.” One can only imagine what will happen to Nigeria if all the promises made during Tinubu’s electioneering campaigns across the country could be prophesies that can be made to come to pass? But as a tree does not make a forest, neither a prophet making a nation, common sense dictates that the president-elect will need an action cabinet or a dream team to turn all his promises into reality.

 

“Take away the wicked from the presence of the king and his throne will be established in righteousness.” No doubt, the failure of the past governments in Nigeria was mostly caused by those that made up their cabinets.

 

Looking at the cabinet of the outgoing government of President Mohammadu Buhari, one may not be wrong to say that he did not have a long list of people he could trust to help him deliver his promises, which could explain why Mr Babatunde Fashola, a former governor of Lagos State got appointed as a minister of a combined Ministry of Power, Works and Housing from 2015 to 2019. In fact, Buhari was said to have preferred appointing only 18 ministers, but for the constitution- Section 147(3) which mandated the president to “appoint at least one Minister from each state.”

 

He eventually appointed over 40 ministers despite assigning Minister of Petroleum to himself. He later sacked and replaced two of them- Minister of Agriculture, and his counterpart in the power ministry, with the president’s spokesperson saying the exercise “helped to identify and strengthen weak areas, close gaps, build cohesion and synergy in governance, manage the economy and improve the delivery of public good to Nigerians.”

Tinubu is expected to also face the constitution dilemma of appointing at least 36 ministers, but the wisdom will be to identify few key ministries where he must get the best Nigerians from any part of the world, irrespective of their political, religious and ethnic affiliation to help deliver his renewed hope. With high inflation, fuel scarcity and general disenchantment across the land, the least the new government can wish for is a team that will hit the ground running.

 

Equally important are the strategies that must be put in place in sectors such as petroleum, jobs, youth and sport, digital economy, security, agriculture, culture and tourism, infrastructure and information.

 

The strategic ministries that should be non-negotiable on the quality of who should head them are Ministry Of Petroleum Resources, Ministry Of Power & Steel, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Ministry Of Works, Ministry Of Youth & Sport, Ministry Of Agriculture And Natural Resources, Ministry Of Information & Communications, Ministry Of Defence, Ministry O f Education & Youth Development, Ministry Of Culture Tourism And National Orientation, Ministry Of Digital Economy.

 

The choice of capable professionals that can help turn around the fortune of Nigeria will not be in short supply to Tinubu if he should beam his searchlight on all the nook and cranny of the world where Nigerians are leading lights.

If I were Tinubu, I will take a cue from President Joe Biden of the United States who appointed three Nigerian-born professionals into his cabinet- Osaremen Okolo, as a member of his COVID-19 response team; Adewale Adeyemo as deputy secretary of the treasury department; and Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo as one of the advisers on legal issues pertaining to the president and the White House.

 

There will be the pressure on the need for jobs for the boys, to settle the party bigwigs and all that played strategic roles that led to the victory of the president-elect, but this must not be to the detriment of the larger goal to renew hope. There will be other spaces in government agencies that they can fill as member of boards among others.

 

But what all members of the dream team must have in common is to be among the best with undeniable passion in their respective fields, and they must be selfless and addicted lover of Nigeria.

 

Meanwhile, what I believe should be the first and most strategic position; though not by appointment will be the seat of the First Lady. The President-elect’s wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu will be expected to secure the home front and give him the peace of mind to focus on the big task.

She must learn from history what her predecessors did right and wrong. We had witnessed in the past when our first ladies became embarrassment and distractions to their husbands and the nation with one escaping to a German hospital for a failed tummy tuck surgery which cost her life, while another one out of greed got enmeshed in corruption such that a Federal High Court had to order the permanent forfeiture of N9.2 billion and $8.4 million recovered from her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

 

Moreover, with the bad blood generated by the Muslim-Muslim ticket that produced the President-elect, Mrs Tinubu, also a pastor will be expected to fill the gap and ensure that her husband is not hijacked by religious fundamentalists. Even though when the issue of the Muslim-Muslim ticket was trending, my thought was that can two of the past leaders who professed to be Christians out of four since the return of democracy in 1999 actually qualify as Christians? Did they meet the basic leadership standard set for Christians by Jesus Christ? That is a story for another day.

 

With estimated half of Nigerian population said to be Muslim, while under half are Christian, it will not be out of place to say that majority believe in the power of prayer and will not mind praying for their leaders and the nation.

 

Of course the nation and its leaders need prayer. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. We can reflect and ask that could it be spiritual or bad luck that the two ‘Christians’ out of the four presidents since the return of democracy failed to meet the yearning of the people, while one of the two Muslims died in office and the outgoing one spent the better part of his first term in office on a sick bed in foreign hospitals?

 

With not a few believing that Tinubu is not physically fit for the job, though he had argued that mental readiness should be of concern, not a fitness to jump into a boxing ring, he will still need continuous prayers for the renewal of spirit because of the huge task ahead.

 

In this regard, Mrs Tinubu will be the prayer warrior for her husband and the nation for affliction not rise up the second time. She must build a coalition of patriots to pray for him every day for a sound mind and for the renewed hope not to be aborted.

 

*Segun Adeleye is the President/CEO, World Stage Limited; Creator, OELA Music; Author of ‘So Long Too Long Nigeria’ and Founder/Chairman, Segun Adeleye Foundation for Good Leadership in Africa (SAFFGLIA).

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Opinion/Feature

Downstream Deregulation: Between Obasanjo’s Half-measures And Tinubu’s Bold Leadership

Published

2 months ago

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October 28, 2024

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By Temitope Ajayi
A video of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s interview with News Central Television has been trending on social media platforms for the past week. In the interview, the former President, in a veiled reference to the current administration, said Nigeria has a President who came into office without a plan. Yet, the same ‘planless’ president is implementing a bold economic reform programme that Obasanjo initiated and abandoned mid-way.
This intervention is essentially about a tale of two leaders and how they both handled fuel subsidy removal, a very touchy issue every president of Nigeria has avoided since 1973 because of its disruptive nature and potential to precipitate a pushback that may lead to civil unrest. This serious matter in itself can make a difference between a bold and courageous leader from one that is pretentious and hesitant.
It is a fact of history that one of the things former President Obasanjo set out to do, among other reforms his administration embarked upon, was complete deregulation of the downstream oil industry. But hard as he tried, he failed to actualise it. Obasanjo faced so much opposition from organised labour and civil society groups that he abandoned a good policy that would have led to massive economic gains for the country. All he could muster the courage to do was to raise the pump price four times during his two-term tenure.
Twenty years after Obasanjo failed to implement complete downstream deregulation, President Bola Tinubu had the courage of his conviction to implement the policy, redirect the economy, and ensure efficiency in the management of public finance.
Despite his foibles and messianic complex, former President Obasanjo is no doubt a remarkable leader. His administration opened the economy and implemented essential reforms that his immediate successor should have continued with. What most critics find offensive about the former president is how he sees himself as the only saviour God created for Nigeria. As far as he is concerned, no other leader before and after him has been good enough. For context and clarity, it is essential to recall the former president’s position on deregulating the downstream oil sector when he was in charge.
In a national broadcast on October 8, 2003, President Obasanjo expressed his frustration and anger at the Nigeria Labour Congress for its opposition to the deregulation of the downstream sector to the point of accusing labour leaders of sedition thus:
“As you are aware, my government has embarked on fundamental reforms designed to depart from the waste and unproductive exercises of the past and leave lasting legacies for the prosperity and improved welfare and well-being of all Nigerians. Since 1999, we have gradually but steadily embarked on the programme of liberalisation and deregulation of the Nigerian economy to promote efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery. Most Nigerians and certainly all organised key stakeholders in the Nigerian economy, including the Nigeria Labour Congress, have endorsed the deregulation programme of government.
“It is a fitting symbol of our administration’s commitment to the welfare of workers and in an effort to cushion the effects of deregulation that the government provided 80 buses to the NLC in 2002. The transliner buses were delivered to the Congress for management without government interference. It is noteworthy that every step taken to deregulate the downstream oil sector has been dogged by, sometimes, irresponsible opposition by the Labour Congress. The result has been that we took too little steps to achieve no meaningful and satisfactory progress. We have tolerated all of these in the interest of promoting popular dialogue and informed dissent.
“Let me inform Nigerians that when government first came up with the deregulation programme, it was endorsed by the NLC and other stakeholders. In fact, the NLC had requested that we call it a “liberalisation” programme. It was thus more a matter of label than of substance. If we had been successful in implementing the deregulation or liberalisation of the downstream oil sector as earlier agreed by all stakeholders, including labour, we would not have been worrying about the periodic and unsatisfactory price-fixing which has led no where except to frustration. The failure to fully deregulate or liberalise has also cost Nigerians billions of naira which are currently wasted on millions of man-hours in queues at the petrol stations.
“The tens of billions of naira currently being lost in money that could have been used to increase capital spending in the universities, fund agriculture, repair and rehabilitate our roads, invest in education and health, improve security with extra police for security of lives and property.
“Realising that the investment of well over $400 million (excluding pipelines and depots) in the last six years mostly on Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) and repairs had not improved the performance of the refineries significantly, government had decided that it was unwise to put additional money into the repair of the Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries before privatising them.
“What most Nigerians must know is that the contracts for the Turn Around Maintenance for the Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries were awarded with 50% of the cost paid upfront before the advent of this administration in 1999. Allow me to add that two of the three refinery locations in the country today, were built by my administration as military head of state. This means that if for no other reason, I should be interested in keeping them working. Already, 18 private firms have been licensed to build refineries but they have been reluctant to go into the industry because of Government’s price control in the sector.
“If only 30% of these firms had been able to establish and operate private refineries, thousands of jobs would have been created and Nigeria would have been in a position to even export refined oil products. All these benefits and more have been denied to Nigerians by the stop-go approach to the deregulation or liberalisation programme, and only a few Nigerians are benefiting from the prevailing government-controlled system. In fact, the NLC’s approach has been counter-productive, and inflicted more pains on Nigerian workers. Each time there is a small increase of three naira or more, transporters have used the opportunity to jerk up transportation cost thereby making the ordinary worker poorer.
“A once-and-for-all total deregulation would have meant a once-and-for-all increase in transport cost and the pump price for petroleum products. Without a doubt, a once-and-for-all total deregulation would have resolved the problem of availability and thus bring down prices for those outside Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and their environs who have always paid much more than the official posted price. Pump prices arising from the present total deregulation would, in reality, amount to a reduction in prices of majority of Nigerians.”
Interestingly, excerpts from the 2003 national broadcast by President Obasanjo present a contrast between the former leader and President Tinubu. They also showcase two leadership visions. One leader saw the need to fight for the country’s long-term sustainability but chickened out because he lacked the courage to upset the status quo. Two decades later, another leader saw the damage the failure to make the right economic decision had caused the country. He decided to correct it to avert a looming calamity. While former President Obasanjo left the most challenging task of his presidency undone, President Tinubu tackled head-on what has become an existential threat to our collective well-being from his first day in office. He has remained focused on the bigger picture.
President Tinubu recognises the burden of leadership and responsibility he bears on behalf of Nigerians. In discharging this burden, he knew from day one that he would have to make the right but unpopular decisions that would ultimately serve the best interest of the country and her people.
It is certainly not correct to say this president came to the office without a plan. President Tinubu came into the office with a clear plan titled “Renewed Hope 2023: Action Plan for a Better Nigeria.” It was a well-thought-out programme, with which he canvassed for votes across the country and was elected by our people.
In the past 17 months, he has remained faithful to the document as he implements the distilled eight-point agenda.
At the heart of President Tinubu’s economic revitalisation is gas development and expansion of gas pipeline infrastructure to enable Nigeria to compete with Russia in the European markets. In fairness to him, former President Obasanjo himself recently lamented he did not pay adequate attention to gas during his term of office.
Expanding the pool of available talents and human capital through granting of loans to young Nigerians who are the future of the country to enable them acquire tertiary or vocational education is part of the plans that propelled Tinubu into office. Consumer credit initiative that will promote local production and further stimulate the economy is also high on Tinubu’s action plan. To the President’s credit, these two important policy initiatives among several others are being implemented through NELFUND and Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CrediCorp).
If there is one President of Nigeria that came prepared and well armed with a clear cut plan to reposition the country across sectors for better outcomes, that President, undoubtedly, is President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
-Ajayi is Senior Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Media and Publicity
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Opinion/Feature

UNCOMMON SCHOLAR, EXCEPTIONAL ADMINISTRATOR: MY TRIBUTE TO PROF. OLOYEDE AT 70

Published

3 months ago

on

October 9, 2024

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By President Bola Tinubu

As Professor Ishaq Oloyede turns 70 tomorrow, October 10, I pay a special tribute to this astute administrator, educator, author, and scholar, currently the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Registrar.

As the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Oloyede’s invaluable contributions to the nation through academia and public-sector administration have significantly impacted the academic community.

ALSO READ: Tinubu Congratulates Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu On Her Election As President, UICC

His impactful tenure at the University of Ilorin, during which he introduced landmark ideas and innovations that helped the institution attain enviable heights, is on record.

Through patriotic dedication and commitment to his craft, Prof Oloyede imparted knowledge and character to thousands of students who underwent his teaching during his glorious and impactful academic career.

Indeed, the bedrock of development lies in education. Developing nations, including Nigeria, are in dire need of more scholars like Prof. Oloyede. His selfless sacrifices and innovative approaches to learning and leadership give hope for a brighter future.

Perhaps more remarkable is Prof. Oloyede’s transformative leadership at JAMB. He pioneered and sustained a series of reforms and technological innovations that have made the admission process in Nigeria transparent and credible.

In his eight years of stewardship at the board, thus far, Prof. Oloyede has demonstrated an uncommon commitment to financial integrity and accountability in public service. He has also raised the bar in administration and management.

I am proud of Prof. Oloyede’s accomplishments.

The nation owes the Professor of Islamic Jurisprudence a debt of gratitude for transforming JAMB, traditionally a non-revenue-generating government agency, into a consistent contributor to the national treasury through efficient financial management. His contributions to JAMB are invaluable and greatly appreciated.

On this occasion of his 70th birthday, I join members of the academic community, students, JAMB staff, and well-wishers in celebrating this scholar who, in words and deeds, has also done a lot to propagate the Islamic religion.

I pray that Almighty Allah will continue to honour the distinguished professor with health, wisdom and strength to serve the nation for many more years.

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Opinion/Feature

Clarification On NNPCL Refinery Operations

Published

3 months ago

on

October 9, 2024

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By Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri PhD

My attention has been drawn to statements made by Engr. Kamoru Busari, Director of Upstream in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, who represented me at a recent conference in Lagos. I wish to categorically state that the claim that I directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to stop running its own refineries and focus solely on equity participation in other refineries is false. This does not represent my position as Minister overseeing the oil sector, nor does it reflect the stance of the Federal Government.

It is important to clarify that NNPCL is a company governed under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), with a functional board and management. The Ministry of Petroleum Resources does not control or run NNPCL, as it operates independently like any corporate entity.

ALSO READ: NNPC/Seplat JV’s “Eye Can See” Programme Restores Vision, Hope In Imo

The oil and gas sector is fully deregulated, and the Nigerian government remains committed to promoting in-country refining. We encourage companies, including NNPCL, to operate independently, following global best practices. While we provide strategic guidance, we do not interfere directly in the operations of these companies.

I reaffirm our commitment to supporting the growth and independence of NNPCL, ensuring that its operations are in line with international standards for efficiency and transparency and profitability.

Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri PhD, Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Oil), wrote from Abuja, Nigeria

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