On Wednesday, 29 May, President Bola Tinubu will be one year in office. It is a milestone that evokes serious reflections, given the electoral promises of every occupant of that office and the country’s existential challenges that need to be tackled. A juxtaposition of the two extremes in one year of this administration leaves no one in doubt of a chasm that is apparently galling.
The administration has noticed this incongruity, gauged the public mood and decided to make the anniversary low-key – a revelation the Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, made. As Tinubu marks one year in office, what may easily and cynically come to many minds could be that off-the-cuff and thunderous declaration, “fuel subsidy is gone,” to the cheers of Bretton Woods institutions, the infamous deities of market-driven economy. The liberalisation of the foreign exchange market followed. These two policies sparked a perfect storm for the economy.
Inflation, their ineluctable consequence, has since then become a bull in a china shop. Insecurity, lopsidedness in political appointments, transparency deficits in governance and disregard for the 1999 Constitution, have equally soared to dwarf Tinubu’s eight-point Renewed Hope Agenda.
