An avalanche of reactions has trailed President Bola Tinubu’s maiden New Year’s Day speech to Nigerians wherein he said, among other things that his government had since assumption of office on May 29, 2023 had laid the groundwork of “our economic recovery plans.’’
He also stated: “Everything I have done in office, every decision I have taken and every trip I have undertaken outside the shores of our land, since I assumed office on 29 May 2023, have been done in the best interest of our country.
“I have taken some difficult and yet necessary decisions to save our country from fiscal catastrophe. One of those decisions was the removal of fuel subsidy which had become an unsustainable financial burden on our country for more than four decades.
“Another was the removal of the chokehold of few people on our foreign exchange system that benefited only the rich and the most powerful among us. Without doubt, these two decisions brought some discomfort to individuals, families and businesses.”
Reacting to the broadcast, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the president offended the sensibilities of Nigerians when he asserted that “everything I have done in the office, every decision I have taken and every trip I have undertaken outside the shores of our land, since I assumed office on 29 May 2023, has been done in the best interest of our country.”
The party which described such assertion as “an unpardonable assault on the sensibility of Nigerians” said “on the contrary, all decisions and actions of the Tinubu Presidency including the approval of an increase in the pump price of fuel from N167 to over N700 per litre, devaluation of the naira with the consequential high costs and hardship; skewing of the 2024 budget in favour of luxury appetite of the Presidency and APC leaders without concrete policies to revive the economy and create jobs; the wasteful foreign trips with political cronies and failure to address the mindless killings across the nation cannot be said to be in the interest of our country.”
The party said in a statement by its spokesman, Mr Debo Ologunagba that the president lied to Nigerians by making false claims and empty promises.
The party said Tinubu “ought to have used the opportunity presented by the New Year to apologise to Nigerians and marshal out steps to address our national challenges, including those responsible for the exiting of multinational manufacturing companies and other businesses from our country.”
It added: “Nigerians were dismayed as President Tinubu employed rhetoric and failed to address the critical issues of insecurity, decayed infrastructure, comatose manufacturing and productive sectors; crushing 28% inflation rate, continuing plunge of the naira, alarming unemployment, excruciating poverty and economic hardship occasioned by the reckless, ill-advised and insensitive policies and programmes of his administration.
“President Tinubu failed to address the vexatious issue of incompetence, insensitivity, massive profligacy, unbridled treasury-looting inherent in his administration, which have put our nation in dire strait.
“More distressing is that President Tinubu had no words in his New Year address for the Christmas eve genocidal massacre of over 200 Nigerians by terrorists in Plateau State and the murder of over 5000 citizens in Plateau and other States of the federation under his watch since May 29, 2023. What manner of a President!
“It is an unpardonable assault on the sensibility of Nigerians for President Tinubu to brazenly assert that ‘everything I have done in office, every decision I have taken and every trip I have undertaken outside the shores of our land, since I assumed office on 29 May 2023, have been done in the best interest of our country.’
“Furthermore, the undermining of the Constitution and Institutions of Democracy including attempts to emasculate the National Assembly and compromising of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) through the appointment of APC card-carrying members as Resident Electoral Commissioners cannot be in the interest of the nation.
“President Tinubu’s claims that his anti-people actions and policies, with their calamitous consequences are in the interest of the nation further confirms that this administration is deliberately subjecting Nigerians to hardship as a way to suppress them to surrender to totalitarianism.
“Also, in stating that ‘from the boardrooms at Broad Street in Lagos to the main-streets of Kano and Nembe Creeks in Bayelsa, I hear the groans of Nigerians who work hard every day to provide for themselves and their families.’ President Tinubu has admitted that his administration has plunged Nigerians into pain, anguish and misery.”
The PDP further said “what Nigerians demand of President Tinubu is to provide a comprehensive account of our nation’s earnings including the proceeds from the removal of subsidy on petroleum products, especially in the face of allegations that the earnings are being diverted to private pockets of APC leaders and their cronies.”
Also reacting to the speech, the Labour Party (LP) described it as “most disturbing” and a “despicable form of deceit,” the president’s claim that “everything I have done in office, every decision I have taken and every trip I have undertaken outside the shores of our land, since I assumed office on 29 May 2023, have been done in the best interest of our country.”
The party, which stated this in a press release by its spokesman, Mr Obiora Ifoh, said: “If anything, the speech conveyed to Nigerians the high level of hypocrisy, deceit and lack of empathy which has become the guiding principle of the All Progressives Congress administration which Tinubu leads.
“It is depressing to note that the President and his handlers didn’t deem it fit to include a word of comfort for the families of over 200 persons killed by terrorists during the Christmas Eve massacre in Plateau State.
“The President’s helplessness in the face of his glaring failure to address the critical issues of insecurity, decayed infrastructure, the collapse of the manufacturing and productive sectors, inflation and the naira to the dollar exchange rate which is spiralling out of control is written all over the speech.
“There was no word about the alleged massive looting of the nation’s resources by appointees and party leaders in various sectors.
“How does his ill-advised decision on fuel Subsidy removal without a plan to ameliorate the suffering of Nigerians translate into an action taken in the national interest?
“Of what benefit were the millions of the nation’s dwindling foreign reserves frittered away under the guise of attending the climate change summit in Dubai to Nigerians?
“How do we begin to repair the damage being done to our democratic institutions such as the Judiciary, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC among others by the APC Administration?
“While we call for prayers for our nation in this critical point of our history, we will continue to call on the national assembly to look beyond party lines and ensure that the spirit and the letter of our constitution is upheld at all times.”
Also reacting, former representative of Kaduna Central in the 8th senate, Mr Shehu Sani likened Tinubu’s speech to that of a native doctor who gives his patient indeterminate time of recovery from an ailment.
“The president’s speech is good and encouraging. It gives the kind of hope raised by native doctors; that you will be delivered from your sickness but no date,” he said.
In his reaction, Mr Reno Omokri, former aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan said the president’s speech would have been complete if he had addressed issues concerning profligacy in government, sacrifice on the part of government officials, bloated presidential fleet, and directive to government’s agencies to patronise made in Nigeria goods.
“Yes, he admitted that the economy was tottering when he took over on May 29, 2023, and he has had to make difficult decisions that have been telling on the Nigerian people and has resulted in an inflation rate of 28 per cent. But where is his own sacrifice? And that of his government?
“It is not enough for him to ask us to play our parts. We must first see that the government is living up to its commitments. When a country faces economic challenges, the leadership cannot expect the people to make sacrifices without first making them.
“What I expected to hear from the president was, for example, that: All jets in the presidential air fleet have been sold except two. All foreign travel by public and civil servants have been embargoed, except where they are strictly in the national interest, and must first be approved by the secretary to the government of the federation, if they are civilians, or the national security adviser, if they are military and paramilitary personnel.
“All ministries, departments and agencies of the federal government are hereby directed to purchase made-in-Nigeria goods and services exclusively, and it will be a dismissible offence for any MDA to patronise a foreign good or service where there is a Nigerian alternative. The Legislature and Judiciary are advised to take the same course.
“Forthwith, the federal government shall not participate in sponsoring, subsidising, or supporting pilgrimages, whether by Muslim or Christian pilgrims. Religion and pilgrimages are a personal exercise, and the only role the government shall play is to regulate the processes to make them orderly.
“All military and police personnel performing non-essential duties, as well as those who retired in the last 10 years, are hereby recalled to active duty and shall be sent to Plateau, Zamfara, Niger, Benue and other security hotspots to end the carnage in those places and ensure that there is security of life and property for all Nigerians.
“Finally, the federal government, under my leadership, shall operate under a low profile, and any overt or covert acts of exhibition of wealth are not to be tolerated and shall be met with punitive measures.
“If the President’s New Year’s message had taken steps along the lines above, then he would have become a national hero and disarmed all his political opponents, as well as mobilised the nation behind him. But it is not too late. It is not too late,” he said.
