Tinubu reforms need more ventilation, not ambush tactics

Common to all credible definitions of democratic governance, is the nexus between the government and the people governed. With the most famous of all such definitions being the ‘government of the people for the people and by the people’, the imperative of a nexus between the government and the people remains self manifest, and is facilitated by the deployment of effective communication between the two. Where there is no effective communication, the situation between the government and the governed mimics that between a handsome, young, prospective man, winking at a beautiful girl in the dark. Only he knows what he is doing, and therefore has no justification to be disappointed with an unrewarding response from her.

The foregoing scenario which is a classic format for promoting the merits of advertisements and building consensus among partners who need to work in tandem, offers significant lessons for the present administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in the light of fallouts from several outings by the administration. Given the context in which government provides leadership for the people, the onus lies on it to also facilitate the utility of its leadership enterprise by the governed people. Whereas the government may have a credible plan for the citizenry, a snobbish tendency remains an antithesis for effective delivery of such a grace.

A point of concern remains the instances of branding of whoever disagrees with the administration in pejorative terms, as has been the forte of the president’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy Mr Bayo Onanuga. It should be seen in bad taste that he would brand as ‘mischief maker’, whoever disagreed with the president on matters of national interest like the recent relocation of critical departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),from Abuja to Lagos.

Yet another instance was the failure of the Minister of Finance and coordinating Minister of the Economy, Yomi Edu, to participate in and explore the opportunity of marketing the Tinubu Economic reforms at the recent 2024 edition of the Annual Trust Dialogue progrmmme. Given the novelty of the reforms of President Bola Tinubu, members of the administration need to exploit every available forum, to ventilate the packages, for the buy-in of the citizenry.

For the purpose of clarification, President Bola Tinubu has set for his administration a most ambitious reform agenda featuring among other targets an annual GDP growth rate of 6%. This contrasts with the projection by some experts who concede a balance between 4%- 4.5% while the World Bank is even more conservative with its own figure of 3.5%. This places the Tinubu plan as a venture beyond a walk in the park, and a tall order. Meanwhile, even at any projected rate, the key to success lies in effective meeting of minds in dialogue, between the administration and the people.

However, given the manner in which some of the administration’s outings and their respective outcomes have attracted public misgivings, the need for remediation of its public engagement protocol becomes imperative. The outcomes so far provide eloquent testimonials that the administration needs to offer more illumination of its policies to the appreciation of as wide a segment of the Nigerian society as possible. Whereas the government may have satisfied itself that it had informed the citizenry of its intentions, citizen response has not yielded the expected follow through to justify the administration’s self-praise for a job well done. Rather, the outcomes often feature debilitating dips in the fortunes of the wider society, simply due to messages that were not digestible by them.

For instance, easily qualifying as the first policy matter of concern by the administration is the removal of the subsidy on petrol price on May 29 2023, which came without any warning to the nation. To accentuate the incongruity of its delivery, it came during Tinubu’s inauguration as President. Needless to rehash that the cataclysmic impact it has had on Nigerians in every nook and corner since then has been telling. While the initiative had its own merits since it had been albatross of sorts on the country’s fiscal regime for as long as can be remembered, the delivery was smack of ambush intent which swung an unprepared country into a vortex in which it is still reeling, courtesy of the after effects of that policy initiative. The issue with this instance is that having not prepared the country adequately for the landmark action, the government is now compelled to indulge in a series of knee jerk remedial responses that seem not to yield the desired soft landing for the citizenry.

Another critical reform area is the forex regime in respect of which the administration launched a bid to secure convergence between the official and parallel markets. Among the specific measures by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), is the reduction of forward sales of forex from the current maximum tenor of 180 days to 60 days from the date of transaction. Other measures include the streamlining of the Bureau de Change (BDC) operators from the presently unwieldy number of over 5,000 of mostly unregistered members. Even as the CBN may claim that its forex reforms need time to manifest positive dividends, with the most dominant forex currency - dollar exchanging at $1.00 to N1,500.00, the government has a lot to explain and remediate, in an economy that is disproportionately skewed historically, towards import dependence.

Yet the same government is not talking much in order to carry the populace along. This leaves a wide room of uncertainty and attendant, destructive speculation leading to a demand push upwards on forex price. Presently, one dollar exchanges for N1500, as against one dollar exchanging for N700, in May 2023 during the inauguration of Tinubu as president.

With the lessons from the few reforms so far launched, the administration needs to rejig its public enlightenment infrastructure as well as content regime. Given the expected reforms in the areas of security architecture, power sector and others, which Nigerians are eagerly waiting for, the need to accommodate the sensitivities of the citizenry remains paramount in talking to the people.

‘Show the light and the people will find their way’, remains a throw-back to the motto of the now rested West African Pilot newspaper - one of Nigeria’s earliest tabloids that was published by late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, also Nigeria’s first President.

Nothing more can be added to the wisdom of that motto, in the present circumstances.