Thursday brief: Tinubu, silent for eight years, cries out over Buhari's incompetence
+ US bans Nigerians who undermine democracy
Good morning.
We are covering Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s latest outburst in Ogun state and the United States’ decision to impose travel restrictions on Nigerians who undermine the nation’s democracy.
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Tinubu tries a Houdini
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has lamented the recent fuel scarcity, which is negatively affecting the daily lives of millions of Nigerians.
Tinubu, speaking at a campaign rally held at the MKO Abiola stadium in Kuto, Abeokuta, Ogun State, also criticised the federal government’s naira redesign policy.
According to the former Lagos state governor, who spoke in Yoruba, the scarcity of fuel and new naira notes were designed to stop him from winning the February election.
Tinubu’s direct quotes, as translated by Punch Newspaper, are worth reposting here:
“They don’t want this election to hold. They want to scuttle it. Will you allow them?”
“They have started coming up with the issue of ‘no fuel’. Don’t worry, if there is no fuel, we will trek to cast the vote.
“If you like, increase the price of fuel, hide the fuel or change the ink on the naira notes, we will win the election. We will use our PVCs (permanent voter cards) to take over the government from them; if they like, let them say there is no fuel, we will trek there (polling booths).
“They are full of mischief, they want to create a fuel crisis, they have started creating a fuel crisis, but, forget about it, put your mind at rest, I’m assuring you. I, Asiwaju will end fuel scarcity.
“Let the price of fuel continue to increase, they are the ones that know where they are hoarding it. They are hoarding naira notes, they are hoarding fuel, we will vote and we will win.
“If you like, change the ink in the naira note, we will win the election, the opposition will be defeated.”
Reaction: The PDP lambasted Tinubu for attempting to dissociate himself from the monumental failures of the APC-led presidency.
Quotable: “It is unfortunate that Asiwaju Tinubu is trying to hoodwink Nigerians by seeking to exonerate himself and blame others in the Buhari led-APC administration for the biting fuel scarcity in the country when in reality he (Asiwaju Tinubu) is known to be behind the insensitive and anti-people policies that have brought so much calamity to our country including the current persistent fuel scarcity,” a PDP statement said.
My take: It’s surprising that Mr. Tinubu has just found his voice after more than seven years of an administration that has worsened the fortunes of this country. Oh, of course he has an election to win, and fuel and naira note scarcity are not exactly fodder for campaign speeches if your party is in power. That, I believe, explains his recent outburst in Abeokuta. But if Mr. Tinubu believes this is sabotage, then he must also believe that his silence over the past seven years has enabled the unprecedented sabotage of the Nigerian state.
As I tell my friends and anyone who cares to listen, I don’t believe President Buhari is a bad man who doesn’t wish for the progress of the country. That’s nonsense. The problem is that he lacks the capacity to engineer the transformation required for Africa’s largest economy to thrive. It is possible to write an essay about this, but that’s a story for another day. Today’s point is that Mr. Tinubu’s claims of sabotage only point out how incompetently the Buhari administration has run the Nigerian economy: great ideas on paper but wrong execution with absurd incentives and no consequences for tardiness.
I have no sympathies for Mr. Tinubu. No matter what he says, he is an integral part of this administration. If Nigerians are angry about the past eight years, they have the right to punish the APC at the polls in February. And Mr. Tinubu has to live with that rejection.
Related: The presidency, in a statement signed by Garba Shehu, said President Buhari’s support of Tinubu should be “unquestioned” after Tanko Yakassai, an elder statesman, said he is “not sure if Buhari is happy with the candidature of Tinubu.”
What else is happening?
New naira notes: Central bank officials failed to appear before a House of Representatives committee as commercial banks appear to have begun to ration the dispensing of new notes ahead of the January 31 deadline.
Visa ban: The United States has imposed visa restrictions on certain individuals in Nigeria for “undermining the democratic process in a recent Nigerian election.” The US has repeatedly warned that it will punish persons found guilty of unduly interfering with the peaceful conduct of the 2023 elections.
Loan restructuring: The Senate again failed to approve the N22.7 trillion Ways and Means request forwarded to it by President Buhari. One reason might be that the federal government has not provided details on how it spent the money.
Uche Ukonne: Abia state governor, Okezie Ikpeazu has suspended his campaign activities for the senate after the PDP’s governorship candidate in Abia in the upcoming polls died at the National Hospital in Abuja. Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, also suspended his campaign over Ikonne’s demise.
Airstrikes in Niger: Scores of people were killed after a yet-to-be-identified aircraft bombed a community in Niger State. The Nigerian Air Force, which has inadvertently struck civilian populations in the past, has not reacted to the incident.
Divestment: Norway’s Equinor is planning to sell its stake in an offshore Nigerian oilfield, part of a trend by Western energy firms leaving the country to focus on other more profitable operations, Reuters reported.
Aluu-4: Parents of the four students of the University of Port Harcourt who were lynched to death in Aluu community in 2012 have urged media entrepreneur Linda Ikeji and Netflix to suspend the planned premiere of their new movie, ‘Dark October’, which centres on the grim fate of their children.
And that’s it for today. Tomorrow is another day.