OPINION: Reform, What Reform?

By Steve Osuji

TINUBU IS A POLITICIAN, NOT A REFORMER: Some cheap talk has crept into the media space recently indicating that President Bola Tinubu is on some reform mission that would set things right in Nigeria in due time. But that’s a joke.  We have gone through this route several times in recent history. This column can assert that this is mere cheap, foolish talk. The wilful imposition of suffering upon the populace by the impulsive removal of a tainted subsidy is being untutoredly referred to as ‘reform’.

It must be stated categorically that President Tinubu is not capable of instituting any reform in the true sense of it. With due respect to him, he lacks the intellectual capacity to initiate and see through any grand, sectorial or wholesale change in the polity or economy.

He is also ailing and therefore cannot bear such enormous physical exertions needed to drive any earth-shaking change  to logical conclusions. Dare we also say that he cannot apply and channel the requisite funds to rig any mammoth change in the system. No, this guy is a politician not a reformer. As we all know, a true Nigerian politician would rather win the next election than complete a mammoth project!

Therefore, Tinubu cannot conceive it, he can’t do it and worse, he doesn’t have the opportunity of a serious party platform to support a large vision. Further,  the cabinet he has just formed is a pointer that he has no such thing in mind. For instance, indulging a conclave of nine former state governors who were not remarkable in their small spaces cannot be bothered with any high-minded thoughts at a job they consider a retirement retreat. Isn’t it easier for the chief executive of a state to effect deep-reaching reforms in his domain? But apart from Dave Umahi, hardly any of the governors left their states vastly different from how they met it.

In fairness to Tinubu, no Nigerian leader has been transformational since after the Second Republic which was terminated by the Muhammadu Buhari coup of 1983. We saw Awolowo, Zik, Michael Okpara, Ahmadu Bello, Joseph Tarka breaking new grounds and setting major landmarks in the 1960s. We also note the indelible footprints  of Sam Mbakwe, Lateef Jakande, Solomon Lar, Abubakar Rimi, among others. Those were big thinkers; and those were the last times we witnessed anything close to a reform.

But today, some of the forests in your state may well be farm settlements set up by Awolowo or Okpara which have been abandoned and overgrown. Another instance:  Concorde Hotels built by Mbakwe, Presidential Hotels by Nwobodo, Gateway Hotels by Bisi Onabanjo in Ogun State, among numerous other examples, lay waste today. They cannot be managed by today’s governors.

REFORM AS MERE SLOGAN: Corruption has devastated the minds of today’s leaders and that’s why the country is in ruins. It wasn’t that the leaders mentioned above were saints or reformers in the truest sense of it but they were able to initiate big developmental plans and see them through to the end.

They planned ahead. We don’t see all that anymore. President Shehu Shagari sang about green revolution, some form of agricultural reform. But it was a mere song. Military President, Ibrahim Babangida spoke so much about economic reforms but he was only dancing to the drumbeats of the Bretton-Woods club. He was only being facetious  – merely a devaluation of the naira without the concomitant productive activities, especially in the export sector. Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo,  Goodluck Jonathan and even Buhari threatened to reform and transform but they were mere slogans. While Buhari was suffering acute inertia and couldn’t as much as form a cabinet, his people told us he was taking his time to reform the process of governance. But it turned out a ruse; for eight years Buhari couldn’t complete nary the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

So with Tinubu it’s the same default propaganda mode we have seen since 1999 that is playing out. Presidents saying things they either don’t understand or they have not given a thought to.

BE GOOD ON THE BASICS: If only our leaders can be good on the basics, (we aren’t even asking for brilliance), that would be good enough for us. Something as mundane as maintaining available infrastructure,  delivering projects at international benchmark costs and duration. But for eight years, obdurate Buhari was like fish in water ( or fish out of water if you will). Like Tinubu today, he didn’t even know how to get started even on basic things. He didn’t know what to do nor was he much aware of what was being done.

It needs to be noted that Tinubu never promised Nigeria reform. Not by his manifesto nor his 7-point agenda. Even as he inaugurated his cabinet,  he didn’t give them any specific, detailed charged nor deliverable targets. That would require some rigour and no such work has been done by anyone in his camp.

For instance,  what exactly does he want to achieve in energy, education,  health,  agriculture sectors? That’s the best way to achieve some minor sectorial results.

THE EUNUCH AND HIS BEAUTIFUL BRIDE: But Tinubu is like an eunuch who heralded his beautiful new wife with a grand ceremony. Even as people enjoy the lavish party their minds would stray to the question as to what happens when the party is over and everyone had gone home.

Like Buhari,  Tinubu has hijacked the Oil Ministry, but what next? That sector requires a total revamp. State refineries need to be urgently brought back on stream and probably privatised; NNPC needs to be cleansed out and sanitised while the security architecture undergirding the industry must be reformed. It’s obtuse, if not stupid that a non-state actor is watching over a country’s strategic asset. Tinubu as oil minister can’t drive these changes and the twain of sub-ministers don’t seem to be possessed of required gravitas.

Two days ago we saw National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu leading a motley crowd of so-called presidential delegates to the Niger Delta. That is the silly style introduced by the semi-incapacitated Buhari. But it’s very laughable seeing a horde of officials milling around pretending to be President. Nobody is fooled or impressed. It’s either the President is at work or he’s not. The issues (oil theft, refineries and pipelines, stakeholders) around the oil delta require the presence of the president carrying out on the spot assessment, persuading, talking tough here and exuding the power and glory of the presidency. Not a job for a coterie of aides!

THERE’S NO ECONOMY HERE: Finally, the bane of Nigeria is that there’s virtually no economy going on here. Apart from our crude oil which is rapidly going out of use,  we are not taking much else to the global markets – no products,  no brands, no special services. It’s bizarre that we still import palm oil and maize. It’s even more so that if our Customs Service manages to block the smuggling of rice, frozen chicken and vegetable oil, there would be food crisis in Nigeria.

Can President Tinubu’s mind penetrate these outer reaches of the economy? If he does, is he thinking about them? Does he know what to do about them?

AGBADO AND CASSAVA REPUBLIC: Among cassava, rice and maize lie the jigsaw of Nigeria’s food economy. As reported in the last piece, the poultry sector is in trouble because there’s no maize to mill feed. Millers are begging for concession to import maize. This has been happening yearly for over a decade.

But between May 29 and today (late August), is time enough to revolutionised the maize and cassava production and value chain.

A wakeful President could have galvanize cooperatives and out grower groups upon inauguration and by now, we would have across the country, lush fields of flowering maize farms. Maize matures in 90 days and at least three cycles of harvest can be achieved in 12 months. Maize can also be inter-cropped with cassava for added value.

The point here is that this is a ripe low hanging fruit that would cost government little. Government only needs to guarantee off-taking of harvests at reasonable price. It’s a sure bet model that would be fuelled mainly by integrity of officials. The enormous benefits inherent in the maize and cassava value chain is a topic for another day. Suffice to say that our poultry industry would immediately blossom!

As Peter Obi has said ad nauseaum, an economy that’s not production driven is no economy.

Osuji is an accomplished Journalist and Columnist