By Ikeddy Isiguzo
ONLY a day after the price of petrol, a major liquid that moves Nigerian life was increased again – for the third time in a month – Mrs. Remi Tinubu, President Tinubu’s wife, had no soothing words for millions of Nigerians who were groaning under the harsh policies that the President announced while being inaugurated on 29 May 2023.
The most crushing of the policies was the removal of subsidy on petrol which has adversely affected prices across all sides of life. Inflation is racing at a rate the National Bureau of Statistics cannot capture. The people feel it. The pangs of stiff economic conditions are matched by the words and deeds of Mrs. Tinubu. When she speaks, her words are as annoying as the millions that the First Lady’s Office wastes on foreign trips at at time the economy runs partially on borrowed funds.
Mrs. Tinubu was First Lady in Lagos State in the eight years her husband was Governor and a Senator for 12 years, during which nobody remembers her contributions, except an altercation with Dino Melaye on the floor of the Senate where unprintable words were thrown around. She requested for more security following Melaye’s threats to beat her up outside the Senate Chambers.
Her penchant for saying annoying things could earn her an award for excellence in that sphere. Proud of her voice, desirous of being heard, and pointedly distant from issues, she delights in minimalising the sufferings of Nigeria with prescriptions that erect her clear indifference to the agonies the President’s policies have created in 18 months.
She told us to plant our own food as food prices soared, claiming her vegetables come from her garden. Lucky her.
Pump price of petrol has increased from N198 on 28 May 2023 to N1,030 by 9 October 2024. The President rationalises subsidy removal by saying it would free up resources that would be deployed to improve the economy.
Mrs. Tinubu while speaking at the Palace of Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, on Thursday, said the Tinubu administration was too young, and could not be blamed for the nation’s doldrums.
“We are just two years (actually 17bmonths) into our administration, we are not the cause of the current situation, we are trying to fix it and secure the future,” she told the gathering.
“We know that subsidy has been removed but with God on our side in the next two years Nigeria will be greater than this. With your prayers in the next two years, we will build a nation for the future.”
Even if the First Lady knows nothing about governance, she knows that most of those working with her husband cannot do much to change the situation. She knows too that the President’s indiscernible commitment to improving the economy is obvious in his policies, long absences and expenditures that rich countries do not make.
The purchase of two new presidential jets, a new accommodation for the Vice President at N21 billion, the Lagos Calabar Coastal Highway, and the First Lady’s trips are drains on resources.
Recourse to “the grace of God” and prayers are not standard policies, particularly when those resorting to the divine leverages have ungodly tendencies. Mrs. Tinubu’s supported thuggery during last year’s presidential election. One would have thought her exposure would redeem her from narrow views of that nature.
Her insults continue thus, “With your prayers in the next two years, we will build a nation for the future”. How are we to understand this forlorn hope?
Our prayers will determine what happens. If we do not pray well, or hard enough, Tinubu’s continuous failure would be our fault.
No matter how we pray, not minding our current plight, the results of our pleas to the Almighty would take two years to materialise, that is by 2026. In case Mrs. Tinubu has forgotten, by then we would be in the morass of the campaigns for Tinubu, who has done so well. His magic, strategic vision, sagacity, economic management skills and experience garnered from his days in international organisations would rescue Nigeria from certain doom. We would be reminded that only Tinubu could have steered Nigeria from a certain doom to an uncertain doom.
More strikingly, Mrs. Tinubu has assured us that by 2026, “we will build a nation for the future”. Those expecting answers today or in two years, should perish the thought. Tinubu, according to his wife, is building for the future, not for you.
When you complain about today, you would be left behind. Only those who understand “build a nation for the future” would realise that the presidential jets and ceaseless comforts the President provides for himself are parts of the nation’s future.
We criticise the President in vain when we discuss today, the immediate. The President is in-charge of the future. He has immersed himself in the future hence he has conceded the present to prayers and market forces.
A quick reminder, the President graduated with honours in Economics from Chicago State University, was on the Dean’s List for most of his stay in Chicago. He recalls these achievements with glee. He was a most sought after student by international organisations that tapped into the breadth and depth of his mastery of Economics, Accounting, and Business Management.
The nearest we came to a glimpse of the fecudity of the President’s fondness for the future is what we were told during the campaigns. It was revealed that he made his money through investments in stocks, and futures. We have Chicago State University to thank for helping deliver a President of outstanding managerial skill sets to Nigeria
A minor challenge is that an undiversified economy for people of diverse tendencies like Nigerians can only be appreciated only in future, certainly beyond 2026.
None understands the future more than the First Lady who has stood with President all these years. She may not speak with that Chicagoan drawl that is exclusive to the President, but knows him enough to speak with a confidence that without assurance hints at a co-presidency that has Mrs. Tinubu as a central partner.
“We give glory to God for our status, myself and my husband, we are not greedy but we thank God for what God has done for us,” said the First Lady, who was in Ife to inaugurate a hostel and a 2.7 kilometer road donated to Ọbafẹmi Awolọwọ University, OAU, Ile Ife, by the Ooni of Ife. Both projects are named after Mrs. Tinubu.
And we can ask her more question. Is your status the Presidency? Who dared accuse you of greed?
The Tinubus are the most selfless politicians to have held public office since 1914. It must have hit the First Lady hard for her and her husband to be accused of greed, and without proof.
“It is not common for rich people to get to this seat but I am grateful to God. We can not disappoint Nigeria and with the help of God, we are getting to the promised land in no distant time,” Mrs Tinubu promised, on behalf of the President.
Until her important speech in Ile-Ife, I considered things I have heard about Tinubu being rich as exaggerated speculations. I would not get into debates on whether he is rich or wealthy or a man of means.
The First Lady could also have been hurt by the lack of public recognition of how rich she and the husband were. Jokes apart, have Nigerians studied the implications of the uncommonness of a rich Tinubu being President? The point should not be pushed further until the President obligises us his assets declaration form.
Perhaps provoked by the insenstivity of Nigerians taking the “grateful to God”, rich presidential family for granted, the First Lady, a 1983 alumna of the then University of Ife donated N1 billion to the university’s development, doubtlessly, another investment in the nation’s future.
These donations are remarkable and draw attention to the wife of the President and sources of her income.
Mrs. Tinubu is not new to big donations. On Tuesday, 12 September 2023, the 500 families devastated by communal clashes in Plateau State got N500 million from her. She gave N500 million on Wednesday 18 September 2024 to the flood victims in Maiduguri.
In three weeks, she has shelled out N1.5 billion. An applause is appropriate and more applause when Zacch Adelabu Adedeji, Chairman of the Federal Internal Revenue Service, FIRS, tells us how much Mrs. Tinubu pays as tax.
We should not wait for the information from Adedeji before commending impoverished Nigerians, who were wherever they were on Wednesday to learn that transport fares had neared the skies with the increase in the price of petrol. How they made it home sprout stories that can fill books.
They are not rich. They are not greedy. Are they being punished for their poverty that is rooted in poor policies and governments’ wastes?
Mrs. Tinubu has answered the questions with the cocksure footedness of the President’s wife – Tinubu is only after the future, a future that would be clearer from 2026! Side-stepping the present to hasten the future is the major execution strategy.
We have Mrs. Tinubu to thank for revealing what could have been a secret for much longer.
Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor issues
