THE ALTERNATIVE
By Reno Omokri
The challenge with a lot of people is that they think intelligence is written in the face. It is not. Some of the most brilliant and deep thinkers look foolish. And they take steps to look even more foolish. It is a strategy. It is a ploy to get people to underestimate them.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo fits this mould. The footballer, Bukayo Saka is cut from the same cloth. As is Bola Tinubu.
It might be a cultural thing, but the Yoruba people of Nigeria’s Southwest are often deemed as passive by those who do not understand their culture. Their culture is rooted deeply in respect. And respect breeds self-control and the type of humility that enables one to outthink and outsmart those who do not possess it.
Many people don’t understand perceptions or the art of influencing human nature. Tinubu has used the fuel subsidy issue and the ripples it has generated to stamp his authority after a disputed election, and unfortunately, it is working.
Everybody is griping about Tinubu. He is now the centre of attention, the cynosure of all eyes, and Buhari has been forgotten. This is a genius mind-control hack. The man has a sordid past dating back to his Chicago activities. But beyond that, he has displayed, in the last week, very deft political moves that have only ever been matched by President Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida in Nigeria’s post-independence history.
The Nigeria Labour Congress is negotiating with him. Nigerians are chanting his name for good or bad. The private sector and oil Marketers are looking to interpret his body language. The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the CEO of NNPCL are all in and out of his office. Like Tupac sang, ‘All Eyez on Me’. The way he has consolidated power in less than a week will be studied in Harvard and other citadels of learning. Ogbon ju agbara lo!
And in truth, whether it is sustaining the removal of fuel subsidy, or the sudden devaluation of the Naira to achieve a single exchange rate parity, there is nothing President Bola Tinubu has done now that would not have been done IMMEDIATELY by the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party, if we had been in his place.
Apart from the New Nigeria Peoples Party, we all said we would do it. To start criticising what we would have done will amount to hypocrisy.
These are excellent and patriotic steps.
President Bola Tinubu must not budge on his decision to stick with the removal of fuel subsidy in response to the strike action called for Wednesday by the Nigeria Labour Congress, or he will cause unimaginable problems for his government and the nation’s future progress.
Instead, address the nation now and create an infrastructure fund where the money saved from subsidy will go and get a Nigerian of unimpeachable integrity, like Bishop Matthew Kukah, or Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, to head it.
In the broadcast, President Tinubu must immediately start cutting waste in government by putting up eight of the ten Presidential planes he inherited from Buhari for sale. Sell the Mercedes Maybachs in the Presidential convoy Buhari bequeathed him and use less expensive cars instead.
He should tell the nation that he has unilaterally reduced his salary and those of all his political appointees, as well as the State House budget, and order permanent secretaries to IMMEDIATELY reduce their budgets to only the barest minimum.
He ought to also offer to increase workers’ salaries. Immediately introduce wide-ranging palliatives to help Nigerians transit to the new price regime. Introduce conditional cash transfers direct to bank accounts of the poorest 5% of the population. Give in to every other condition by the NLC.
But whatever he does, President Tinubu must not back down and intervene in the pump price of petrol. Please leave it to market forces. Once he loses his authority so cheaply, he will never regain it at the same level.
Tinubu, stamp your authority unequivocally on the NLC. It is the right thing to do, and Nigerians will support you if you also make sacrifices. And though it brings short-term pains, subsidy removal will also result in long-term gains.
Look at the Benin Republic lamenting about subsidy removal. Why? Because we are also subsidising them, and Niger, as well as Chad and Cameroon. Nigeria cannot keep leading a life of consumption and expecting the benefits of a nation that engages in production.
If President Tinubu makes a wrong move, I will descend on him with the same #BuhariTormentor energy I used on his predecessor. But those expecting me just to oppose him unthinkingly and blindly because he is not in my party, will wait for a very long time.
And his appointments so far have been heartwarming. I like how President Bola Tinubu balanced the two most important appointments in his government between Christians and Muslims, naming George Akume, a Christian Middle-Belter, as his Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and Femi Gbajabiamila, a Muslim Southwesterner, as his Chief of Staff.
Both men have the necessary educational qualifications and political experience for the positions they are to fill. Round pegs in round holes
So far, he is keeping his promise of not Islamising his administration. So far, so good. If he derails, we will give details.
On the issue of his cabinet, it is pandering to the headless mob to compare the speed at which President Recep Erdogan of Turkey would announce his cabinet to the pace at which President Bola announced his. I have been to Turkey thrice. First and foremost, Erdogan was an incumbent, which means that he already had a cabinet in place before and during the election and merely made slight changes after he won.
Secondly, after the 2017 Turkish constitutional referendum, Turkey’s Constitution was amended to allow the President to constitute his cabinet WITHOUT parliamentary approval. Please research it. The cabinet Erdogan declared on July 9, 2018, and again yesterday, June 3, 2023, did NOT require parliamentary approval. Erdogan just announced names, and you automatically became ministers.
The situation in Nigeria is different. Tinubu is not an incumbent. Even if he was an incumbent, neither he nor anybody else who won the election (be it Waziri Atiku Abubakar or Peter Obi) could appoint a cabinet without Senatorial approval. It is a mandatory constitutional requirement. It is not a choice.
And for that to happen, Tinubu constitutionally has to wait for the tenth Senate to be inaugurated. And they have NOT been inaugurated. What we have is the ninth Senate, and they are not sitting. And even if they are sitting, they lack the powers to approve Tinubu’s cabinet nominees. If they do it, the same people now criticising Tinubu because of Erdogan will go to court to challenge the validity of that cabinet.
I am determined to fight for the mandate of Waziri Atiku Abubakar at the Presidential Election Petition Court. I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that Tinubu is linked to cartels. But that does not mean I will mindlessly criticise or support those who unthinkingly criticise President Tinubu. Until the court rules otherwise, he is our President. And if he does wrong, I will torment him. But if he does well, I will applaud him, pending when my party’s Presidential candidate can democratically unseat him.
All in all, I would say that, for President Tinubu, it is a case of so far, so good. But we are watching him. If he puts the wrong foot forward, we will put our right foot forward and give him a kick. But what I will not do is kick against the goads.
Reno’s Nuggets
With the ascension of President Bola Tinubu to power (until our petition unseats him, God willing), I have some Saturday Wisdom for former Vice President Osinbajo:
Never betray an old master for a new master. Otherwise, you will end up with no master. And you will NEVER be a master.
Sho yè é?
