Kenneth Okonkwo

Devourers are people who eat greedily or voraciously. People who use up or destroy by eating. They behave like locusts, canker worms and caterpillars, which destroy livelihoods of people by eating them up. Prof Usman Yusuf described Tinubu’s one year in office as a year of deception, destitution, and hopelessness, while Dr Usman Bugaje described the renewed hope agenda as renewed fraud. The summary of these postulations is that this is a government that is bereft of good governance, which is a sine qua non for development and advancement of a country. Good governance is the effective, accountable, and transparent management of public resources and affairs. It involves a set of principles and practices that ensure the exercise of power is democratic, inclusive, and responsive to the needs of citizens. Some key elements of good governance include: management, accountability, transparency, participation, rule of law, responsiveness, equity and inclusiveness, effectiveness and efficiency, consensus-oriented, human rights, and anti-corruption. It’s sad to note that this government has not excelled in any of these key elements.

Every person in the whole world knows that this country is blessed with abundant human and material resources; what is lacking is management. Comparing the achievements of this government with the requirements of good governance and management, the facts will speak for itself. Inflation rate today is more than 41%. This is paper work because, practically, food prices has risen by more than 300%. Bag of rice that was about N19,000.00 when this government came in, is now about N80,000.00. This is about 400% increase in food items, in a country where the minimum wage is N30,000.00, and in which the government is proposing N57,000.00 as minimum wage. This government has turned Nigerians to destitutes.

When this government came in, the first gift it gave to Nigerians is “fuel subsidy is gone”, and automatically the fuel subsidy was purportedly removed. Analysing the import of this decision exposes the incompetence of this government. The President did not consult any human being, living or dead, before removing that subsidy, because it was done during his inaugural speech. This offends the participation, consensus-oriented elements of good governance. As at the time he made the ill-advised statement on 29th May, 2023, there was an extant law that provided that the subsidy can only be removed by June 30, 2023. This offends the rule of law component of good governance. The price of fuel immediately jumped from N195.00 to almost N700.00, about 350% increase. There has not been transparency on how much is realised from removal of subsidy and what the realised funds are used for. When Abacha removed subsidy partially, he established the Petroleum Trust Fund to cater for some infrastructures with the savings from the increased price of fuel. When Goodluck Jonathan removed subsidy partially, he established Subsidy Reinvestment Programme, (Sure-P) to utilise the savings to provide essential services for the people. This government removed subsidy completely and established no programme to utilise the excess revenue for the benefit of the people. It is rather taxing the people the more. Electricity tariff, among many others, has illegally increased by 300%.

Naira was depreciated by 400%, going down from about N500.00 when this government came in, to about almost N2,000.00 at a certain time. Again, this ill-advised decision made the landing price of fuel to increase by another 300%, on the least, because as at that time, refined fuel was 100% imported. This would have increased the fuel price to more than N1,000.00 landing cost if this government had not speedily reintroduced fuel subsidy to be able to maintain the fuel price at about N617.00. The economy and the people were punished for nothing. As at today, the government that removed fuel subsidy illegally by fiat, could not reach agreement on the minimum wage to pay workers, one year after. Workers are dying of hunger and penury. Even the President’s own people are crying that they are hungry. This regime has deceived Nigerians and these offend the accountability, transparency, responsiveness, equity and inclusiveness, effectiveness and efficiency of the elements of good governance.

The awkward display of profligacy commenced from the forming of the cabinet of this regime. This President appointed 48 Ministers to help him milk Nigeria dry. The largest cabinet in Nigeria history at a time when the country is at its poorest. To compound the whole matter, the President, Head of Service, Chief of Staff, Chief Justice of Nigeria, Attorney General of the Federation, Minister of Finance, Central Bank Governor, Federal Inland Revenue Service Chairman, Controller General Customs, Controller General of Immigration, Accountant General of the Federation, Chairman Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Minister of Interior, Minister of Power, Minister of Petroleum, Inspector-General of Police, Chief of Army Staff are all Yoruba. In addition to its Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket. This offends the rule of law, equity and inclusiveness elements of good governance, and Section 14(3)(4) of the 1999 Constitution. This government is really a government of deception.