Tinubu Should Re-Examine His Economic Reform Policies – Getso

Umma Getso, a political activist, was vice presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) in the 2019 elections. In this interview, she speaks on the administration of President Bola Tinubu, insecurity and the national protest, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports

How will you assess the President Bola Tinubu’s administration so far?

It’s very hard to say this; but if we look at the situation of President Tinubu-led government, we cannot cover our eyes and say that the man is doing well or that his administration, so far, is performing.

Whatever that is the figure in the papers needs to be reflected in the lives of common Nigerians, or average Nigerians, so to speak.

And the way things are going, I am worried, I am very afraid of the way the youths are hungry and angry, calling for agitation, and protests. You can see what is happening in foreign countries, even in nearby African countries.

I do not think that our parents and grandparents witnessed this type of hardship that the people are experiencing. Things are tough for Nigerians and this truth must be told to those in power. Everybody is crying; businesses are dying, and some international companies and multinationals are relocating, and leaving Nigeria, and this is worrisome.

We have to tell Mr. President, governors and our National Assembly members that there is an urgent need for a kind of fire brigade approach to the situation else I am afraid we may witness what will shock all of us to the marrow. We have been calling ton he youth to calm down; we have been calling the masses to calm down but things seem not to be improving. There is a limit and a lot of people do not want to go back to their houses because of the biting hardship.

And we cannot close our eyes and say the administration is doing well giving the excuse that they have just been there for one year. With what we suffered under former President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerians expected that it would not be worse than what we had in the previous government but they were wrong.

The expectation was that with the coming of President Tinubu on board, it would bye to hunger and poverty and all the negatives that Nigerians witnessed under the Buhari regime.

We can even excuse Buhari because you can say he was a novice politically but what will be the excuse for Tinubu? We expected him to bring the magic he did in Lagos to the entire Nigeria but he is failing in the challenge.

We had a lot of hope for the Tinubu presidency because the feeling was that he was politically sophisticated and knew what best to do to pilot the affairs of this country to dignity, safety and prosperity. To be candid, Nigeria is not well, Nigeria is not going well and I am very afraid of what is going to happen next should we continue on this painful path.

Where do you think this government got it wrong?

The removal of the fuel subsidy without adequate preparation for what will cushion the effect is one of them. It affected everything, and the prices of everything skyrocketed.

We expected him to have subsidies on food, transportation and some other things. I am confused about why he removed the subsidy without any amenity, or palliatives provided to subsidise for the common masses.

So, the removal of fuel subsidy is one thing, tax increment is another thing. He has to re-examine his economic reform policies because they are not giving desirable results. I have many friends, who are closing their businesses because of huge taxes and multiple taxation. These are people that are creating jobs, employing people that the government cannot employ but now they cannot sustain their businesses.

The Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) is just out collecting multiple taxation and massive revenue, without considering the consequences on the businesses of the people. Let me be honest with you, things are not just right and the earlier the government is aware of this deep pain Nigerians are going through and practically address the issues, the better for it.

We cannot continue this way; we cannot continue on this dangerous path, and if we do, I see a mass revolt coming that will shake this country the way it has never happened. It will be difficult to quench because some have vowed that they would die rather than continue this way.

Many have been thrown out of their homes and their villages, and for them, there is no joy in living again. So, I urge the government to rise to this challenge. Nigerians are suffering, they are dying by the day and something drastic must be done to restore their hope.

What is very unfortunate is that the people in government are spending money like flowing water; they are living in opulence and do not seem to care. They are dethatched from the reality of the hardship in the land. There is so much imbalance; the gap is so wide between the haves and havenots and getting wider with each passing day.

If the people in government are suffering also, feeling the pain the ordinary Nigerians are feeling, tightening their belt like the ordinary Nigerians, the masses will not feel bad but they are swimming in wealth, ill-gotten wealth but want the poor citizens to continue to pay the sacrifice. Ordinary Nigerians are suffering but the people in government are spending in billions, getting their comfort, while the masses are dying. To be candid, the gap has never been this wide.

What is your take on the security challenge and the return of suicide bombers in some parts of the country?

The funny part of it is that, we in the North have been crying about insurgency, insecurity, kidnapping and banditry, among others. It is the North that is suffering the insecurity most. Now the president has handed to the North the security power to tackle the menace but we are messing it up.

Everybody there; Defence minister, National Security Adviser, name them, they are all from the North but there is always a fight between the governors and the ministers and service chiefs over lack of coordination. What is happening in the region is scary and I don’t know why insecurity has remained high in the North even when they are the ones majorly in charge of taking action.

They are playing politics with it. The governors are crying and saying that they are doing their best but that the ministers are not supporting them, that they are not in what they are doing, they are not working in synergy to curb the menace and this is worrisome.

Mr. President handed it over to us but the North is failing in using the opportunity to root out insecurity out of the region and by extension out of Nigeria. Imagine the man from Zamfara where the insurgency is also quite high; he is supposed to be on the ground, putting in all measures.

He should be doing more than enough to ensure that the surge is tackled. But it’s sad they appear to be playing politics with it or what can one call it. It’s always a fight between them and their governors and I do not expect such a situation to arise. So, as far as insecurity is concerned in Nigeria, we are now on our own.

Each time you pass through Gwaripa in Abuja, you will see women in their hundreds sitting with their children by the roadside. It is sad that my people are coming here to beg. I stopped one day to ask them their plight, and they all told me that they did not even know how they got to Abuja, that they were dropped at Sabo and Wuse.

They are just refugees; they sleep by the roadside and they are under the scorching sun always. Most of them don’t even know where their families are; some of their husbands are dead, some of their sons were killed, and they cannot sleep in their houses.

That is for those who still have because it is gunshots after gunshots. So, we are at war in the North and our ministers are busy in the capital spending money, driving flashy cars, travelling out of the country anytime they want, while the poor that voted for them are neglected.

In the interim, what do you expect the government to do to ameliorate the hardship?

Those in the government desired to be there; they have been working on the project and what they want to do. Some were there with Buhari and if you add this one year they have been there for nine years.

So, one should expect them to know the solution. Anybody who calls himself a leader in the last nine years should have a solution to all these things that we are suffering from, both economy and insecurity.

Let me be frank with you, I have a lot of confidence in President Tinubu because he is somebody with loads of experience, God used him to put President Buhari in power and he saw all the errors of Buhari, so we are now expecting him to have a blueprint, a working plan on how to fix Nigeria.

He should know the errors and the solution more than me and he should just be there to fix things. It’s not me that will provide the solution for them to work on.

Some say that President Tinubu has been hijacked by a cabal. Do you agree with that?

They were using the same language when Buhari was in office but it is not the cabal that took the oath of office, and we have no reason to be blaming anybody or apportioning blame to any cabal. He should take responsibility.

Tinubu was not put there by any cabal. You can see the body language of Buhari then that they never wanted him. I think President Tinubu should know better and work on his talk.

It will be disappointing of him if he allows such forces to derail his vision of what he wants to leave as a legacy. So, the onus rests on him to wake up and stop a looming mass revolution. It is his good governance and capacity to properly address Nigeria’s present hardship that will salvage the situation.

Source: New Telegraph