- Say hunger, anguish, deaths characterise outgoing year
- Lament erratic power supply, constant collapse of national grid
- We hope serious efforts will be made to confront hunger next year – Farounbi
As 2024 winds down in the next 16 days, Nigerians have lamented worsening hardship despite the fulfillment of some of the promises made by President Bola Tinubu at the beginning of the closing year.
They said even though the president introduced some policies and signed a new minimum wage, among other programmes, tough time persists for citizens.
President Tinubu had reassured Nigerians of his commitment to fulfilling all pre-election promises in his 2024 New Year’s speech where he stressed that “tough times never last.”
The Federal Government had in 2023 made some promises to Nigerians which were expected to be implemented in 2024.
In November 2023, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maitama Tuggar, said Nigerians will experience improved power supply by the first half of 2024.
He said electricity supply across the country will improve with the Siemens gas deal between Nigeria and Germany and the completion of the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline project.
“The President in his many speeches spoke very well; he outlined his intentions, some of which ought to have moved Nigeria forward. But, there were also some which created problems that made whatever goodness he could have made in other areas difficult to see.”
The Minister said, “In the coming year by the first half of next year (2024), there will be a remarkable improvement in the electricity supply in Nigeria.”
Similarly, the president assured Nigerians in his New Year speech that he had made a new deal with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, during COP28 in Dubai to speed up the delivery of the Siemens Energy power project which will ultimately deliver a reliable supply of electricity to various homes and businesses under the Presidential Power Initiative.
Tinubu added that other power installation projects to strengthen the reliability of transmission lines and optimise the integrity of the national grid were ongoing across the country.
However, stakeholders in the power sector have said the Federal Government is yet to fulfill this promise as erratic power supply and constant collapse of the national grid have been the order of the day. This year alone, the national grid collapsed at least 12 times.
On security challenges confronting Nigeria, President Tinubu assured Nigerians of improved security in 2024, noting that national defence and internal security are prioritised in his administration’s 8 point agenda.
“Silently, we have worked to free captives from abductors. While we can’t beat our chest yet that we have solved all the security problems, we are working hard to ensure that we all have peace of mind in our homes, places of work and on the roads,” Tinubu said in his New Year speech.
Specifically, the Minister of state for Defence, Bello Matawalle, in an interview, said that by November 2024, insecurity in the country will be a thing of the past.
“God willing, from now to November of 2024, all security challenges will be overcome,” Matawalle had assured.
While Nigeria is still groaning under Boko Haram siege, bandits’ attacks and terrorism acts, a new terrorist group, Lukawara, has been formed in the northern region with its operations in Sokoto and Kebbi States.
The Minister of Information and Communication, Idris Mohammed, had in December 2023, announced that a new wage structure would take effect from April 1, 2024.
While corroborating this in his New Year speech, the President said that his government “will implement a new national living wage for our industrious workers this New Year.”
This promise was fulfilled by the president even though not all the states of the federation have kick-started its implementation.
On the president’s objective of having functional refineries in the country, Tinubu affirmed in his speech that “In 2024, we are moving a step further in our quest to restart local refining of petroleum products with Port Harcourt Refinery and the Dangote Refinery, which shall fully come on stream.”
Although the Port Harcourt Refinery was announced to have started operating, it has, however, been enmeshed in controversies and allegations of lack of functionality.
Nigerians are still waiting to see the other three state-owned refineries revitalised and operational like the Dangote Refinery.
As part of his plans of making education affordable, President Tinubu made true his promise of implementing a new Students Loan policy.
Speaking at the 29th National Economic Summit in October 2023, Tinubu said his government’s Students Loan Programme will commence in January 2024.
The student loan scheme is designed to afford Nigerian students the opportunity of meeting up with the exorbitant fees being charged in higher institutions and ease the process of learning.
With a view to tackling hunger and killings in many parts of the country, the President assured Nigerians of food supply, security and affordability to combat hunger in 2024 through the National Wheat Development Programme launched in November 2023.
Tinubu said, “To ensure constant food supply, security and affordability, we will step up our plan to cultivate 500,000 hectares of farmlands across the country to grow maize, rice, wheat, millet and other staple crops.”
But, Nigerians await the manifestations of these promises even as the year ends in a few days to come. Many Nigerians cannot still afford a hike in prices of foods and other essentials.
In an exclusive interview with The Point, an elder statesman, Dr Yemisi Farounbi, x-rayed notable policies and programmes of Tinubu’s administration, concluding that most of his activities have been mere “talks” and not backed up by “effective actions.”
Farounbi declared that until Nigerians feel the results of his actions in their pockets, he might have achieved nothing.
He said, “The President in his many speeches spoke very well; he outlined his intentions, some of which ought to have moved Nigeria forward. But, there were also some which created problems that made whatever goodness he could have made in other areas difficult to see.
“One of the things he has done this year is a proposal of a tax reform. Unfortunately, the proposal has torn Nigerians apart. The proposal has shown that rather than being welded together, we are still in pieces; whether as northerner, or as southerner or as south westerner or as southeasterner. So, there is a tax proposal that has shown that we have not moved forward from where we were when Buhari left us. Of course, there are people who also believe that the tax reform is an attempt to unify rather than to promote a federal structure. The uniformisation of taxes all over Nigeria, particularly with a clause that says the provision of that law is supreme to any other law, meaning that the sub-nationals and even the local governments cannot make their own laws as regards taxation.
“Another area which he (Tinubu) has dabbled this year is what we call the autonomy of the local governments. In the last few weeks, the Attorney General of the Federation has been threatening the council chairmen as if they are directly under his office. Whichever way you look at it, a local government is still situated within a state. It doesn’t matter what the Supreme Court in its wisdom or lack of it had ruled, the fact remains that geographically, politically, the local governments have to operate within the context of a state and it is expected that each state will have an economic development plan mapped out for growth, development which the local governments in the state are supposed to be partakers in.
The kind of threat the Attorney General has been giving, in my view, amounts to subversion of the concept of federalism.”
The former Nigerian Ambassador to the Philippines lamented hunger in Nigeria, saying, “There is the issue of inflation of foods, inflation of general goods, and there is hunger in the streets. We hope that in the New Year, serious efforts will be made in confronting the issue of hunger. He (Tinubu) should realise that there is no way the Federal Government can confront the issue of hunger without carrying the states along, and without the states involving their local governments. Maybe by this, they (Federal Government) will be able to see the stupidity and the structural error by trying to take away the local governments from the states.”
He expressed optimism in the partnership deals between Nigeria and foreign countries, stating that, “on the issue of foreign direct investment, if the treaties that have been entered into are implemented, Nigeria will benefit from it next year.”
“In the year, Dangote and another refinery have started an export of refined petrol which I believe is a credit for the first time. We have always been exporting crude oil and we have a country like Venezuela that is also oil producing like us, and not only export crude oil, but also refined.
“But, it is still all talk and not backed by effective actions and Nigerians are waiting to see the results of whatever he is doing in their pockets. They want their pockets to be better than when they were when he took over in 2023.
They did not want to suffer for hunger, they did not want to suffer for housing scarcity, they did not want to see a collapse of the national grid that has become a regular feature of our society.
Also reviewing how far President Tinubu’s administration had fared this year, another notable Nigeria, the Lead Bishop of Worldwide Anglican Church (WAC) in Nigeria, Bishop Seun Adeoye, submitted that aside from the reduction in activities of herdsmen, Nigeria has been “down in other things.”
Lending his voice in an exclusive interview with The Point, Adeoye said hunger, anguish, deaths have characterised the outgoing year.
“The only thing I know is that we have had a reduction of herdsmen activities. Unless it is not being reported. But there is no way things like that will happen and it will not be reported. There is a drastic reduction of herdsmen attacks, particularly, in the South West which I know very well. But, I know there are still kidnappings in the North and it has become a daily occurrence. But, as far as the South West is concerned, I think we have had a reduction of herdsmen attacks.
“But, of all other things, economically, Nigeria is down.
Though, the government always say they have done well, but if they are doing well economically, we ought to have seen it in the lives of Nigerians, because like Nigerians are being punished now, the poor are becoming more poorer, we are gradually becoming the poorest of the people all over the world because of the level of sufferings and pains. If you take a thousand, twenty thousand to the market, I am not sure you are going to come back with anything. So, people are struggling to survive. And I have the belief that the majority of these people might have died silently, unreported, because of the situation we have on ground.
“If you don’t eat well, there are chances you will fall sick and if you go to hospital, the level of charges we have at the hospital is alarming. So, most people died at home without anybody reporting all these things just because the economy is down. Health wise, I have not seen real improvements in the health facilities, they are just there.
“Educationally, it is not palatable because if you look at it now, it is like they have taken education from the reach of the poor. It is only the rich people that can sponsor their children to higher education, particularly universities and other higher institutions. Look at the cost of school fees and other charges, there is no way poor Nigerians can afford it. The wealthy people appear to have taken education from the poor.
“Whether in private or public higher institutions, there is no course of study that your children want to apply for that you will not have about a million naira. Look at state universities, look at federal universities, look at private universities. So, for that, many people cannot continue educationally, they have to be struggling. At the end of the day, we may not have seen the effect of what is happening now and people are not seeing that in the nearest future, in about five to ten years, this might have a serious impact or implication upon the economy and upon Nigeria,” he said.
Also, the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, has described 2024 as a challenging year considering the economic situation of the country.
He, however, assured Nigerians that President Bola Tinubu is working tirelessly to address the nation’s economic situation and other challenges.
“If you don’t eat well, there are chances you will fall sick and if you go to hospital, the level of charges we have at the hospital is alarming. So, most people died at home without anybody reporting all these things just because the economy is down.”
Speaking on Friday during the Assembly’s 22nd Annual Thanksgiving Service, Obasa urged Nigerians not to despair, saying the President is busy doing everything possible to put smiles on Nigerians’ faces.
He said, “The outgoing year is indeed a challenging one, especially considering the economic situation of the country. Nevertheless, we have solace in the fact that the government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is not leaving any stone unturned to bring us to our promised land.
“Mr. President is busy doing everything possible to put smiles on our faces. Trust me, succour is coming. I urge us to keep the hope alive.”
A Lagos resident, Bola Bakare who expressed optimism that the various economic policies introduced by Tinubu’s administration would yield fruitful dividends in the near future however lamented the urgency applied in the introduction of the policies without considering the effect on the poor masses.
Bakare insisted that the various so-called palliative measurements introduced to ameliorate the effect of the policies on the citizenry were not effective as they were not reaching the targeted teaming masses of Nigeria.
He highlighted the policies that have impoverished Nigerians as amongst others, the outright removal of fuel subsidy on petroleum products’ pump price, the hike in tariff of electricity.
Also speaking, a public commentator, Hammed Kolapo, who also spotted light at the end of the tunnel as regard the economic policy, noted the palliatives introduced to ameliorate the suffering were belated adding that the government must have done its homework before the introduction of the policies.
While still supporting the removal of subsidy on petroleum products, he called for the reversal of the subsidy removal on gas adding that gas has replaced kerosene in domestic usage.
The concern of Alhaja Abibat Sunmonu is the rising cost of food which according to her is biting hard as hunger has become the lot of an average Nigerian.
She blamed the hike in prices of food stuff on insecurity especially in the northern part of the country where insecurity is preventing farmers from gaining access to their farms.
But an economic expert, Tayo Adeyemo commended the policy that exposes the true value of naira in the world market but warned against indiscriminate use of taxation to further impoverished Nigerians.
Also, President Tinubu has said he is aware of the harsh economic situation of the country, and he begged Nigerians to endure what he described as “unintentional hardship”.
President Tinubu noted he does not take pleasure in inflicting pains on Nigerians. He assured that there was light at the end of the tunnel.
Tinubu said this on Saturday at the 48th convocation ceremony of Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
He said he had embraced both the assets and liability of his predecessors.
The President was represented by the Special Adviser on Economy, Office of the Vice President, Tope Fasua.
He assured that his reform policies were aimed at making Nigeria work for everyone.
However, he added, the pains that come with the reform must be endured in the meantime.
“I am not unaware of the harsh economic situation of our country, nor do I take pleasure in inflicting pain and anguish on my compatriots.
“However, we were faced with the stark reality of results of some policies hitherto executed by past administrations, but which had no direct positive impact on the generality of our people.
“We have gladly accepted the assets and liability of our heroes’ past without any intention of apportioning blame or pointing an accusing finger at any individual or group of people.
“As we are trying to fix, reconfigure and correct past mistakes and errors, we implore all Nigerians to cooperate with us, endure this unintentional hardship so that, like the graduates of today, we all can celebrate and be celebrated at the end of the day.
“I am certainly seeing the light at the end of our tunnel,” he added.
