Another Reminder: It’s Now Time For Governance Not Politics -By Rotimi Fasan

The outgoing year is without doubt one of the most politically toxic years in the entire post-independence history of this country. It started on a very toxic political note, carried over from the previous year, and it is obvious, it’s going to end also on a politically note, hopefully, not as toxic as it began.

The naira has gained a little more value against the dollar since last week and one can only hope that things won’t go south again before the year runs its course. It’s important not to lose sight of the gain made by the naira since everything in this country today is hinged on the value of the naira against the dollar.

Our very existence as a country and a people appears to hang in the balance on account of this fact and we can only pray and hope that things get better until we are able to break the stranglehold of the dollar on our economy by aggressive exportation of products other than crude oil and can key into emerging groups like the BRICS that are seeking alternatives to the dollarised global economy.

In just over three months, it would have been a year since we had the presidential election of 2023. And even after the disputes from the election have gone through the entire gamut of our legal system, culminating with the Supreme Court verdict that affirmed the victory of Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the polls, some political parties and their leaders are determined to go on politicking, it must be said, this time with the future of this country.

Atiku Abubakar’s attempt to raise the political temperature by his ill-advised press conference after the Supreme Court’s verdict has deservedly failed. It did not gain traction despite the apparent intention of tying it to the valedictory talk of Supreme Court Justice Muhammad Dattijjo that had slammed the judiciary as a haven of corruption.

No sooner did we move from that than some of these critics, in fact sworn enemies of the Nigerian state, moved on to the contents of the Supplementary Budget. We all know how criminally self-serving our legislature is among other state institutions. They legislate mainly for their own benefit and the benefit of their members.

They who deliver regular homilies on cutting the cost of governance and harp on the urgency of everyone working to shore up the value of the naira, these same legislators suddenly find they can only execute their responsibilities in imported multi-million naira SUVs. Nigerian made or assembled vehicles can’t just make the cut even for many of them that have been beneficiaries of similar vehicles only a couple of years ago as returning legislators.

Quite a number of them receive allowance and enjoy other perks as former state officials, especially, governors. Yet, they sit in the legislature in positions that ought not to attract anything more than sitting allowance or run on part-time basis, and insist on conditions of service that ordinary Nigerians that worked for more than four decades of their lives cannot hope to have.

All of this for a four-year term. Nigerians are, therefore, justified to condemn such brigand wastage of our commonwealth on frivolities, including huge expenses on the unconstitutional office of the First Lady. There are more than enough vehicles in the presidency to cater for the needs of the First Lady even as an unofficial appendage of the office of the president.

It has to be said, too, that in many instances it isn’t these state officials, say the president or his aides, that demand such perks as are attached to their office. It is usually some faceless civil servants that make such demands, insisting they are by law required and not subject to the personal wishes of the direct beneficiaries. Of course, these are excuses for the civil servants to feather their own nests but they hide behind the requirements of certain regulations or law to demand benefits that people for whom they are meant are hesitant to accept.

This brings me to the apparently manufactured controversy around the so-called presidential yacht. Even the use of the word “presidential yacht” conveys the idea of some luxury sea vehicle meant for the pleasure of the president. This was meant to cause controversy. At a time when most Nigerians are griping about the difficulty they are facing meeting basic needs like the provision of food, affordable transport and payment for goods and services- at a time when food inflation has left many without anything to eat, that’s when some people saw fit to request billions of naira for the purchase of a presidential yacht.

Now, we are all getting to know that what was called a presidential yacht in the supplementary budget is in fact a re-purposed naval gun boat that the Navy uses for operational duties. It’s been long in existence and with each president from Olusegun Obasanjo, through Umaru YarÁdua, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, something of a controversial Greek gift that each promptly rejected. Why is it again a subject of controversy?

In this instance, the yacht has already been bought and delivered and all that is left is to pay, which was why it was featured in the supplementary budget. All the transactions connected to it took place before Bola Tinubu came into office. Yet, some already looking for something to use as their excuse to attack the government of the day, seized on it and went on and on about an imperial president turned ruler out only to cater for his personal needs. To live with and keep his family in luxury. It would be very fine, even an act of patriotism, to criticise the president if all of this was true. But to simply want to make a political capital and create avoidable controversy that hobbles governance around it is both irresponsible and harmful to national well-being.

It is obvious that some Nigerians don’t see anything good about the country. They cannot bear to hear any good thing about the president and would go just to any length to show that the country is headed downhill. Some of them, who have since been recanting or finding ways to qualify their promises, earlier swore to go on exile should Tinubu win the presidential election.

Others are wondering whether they should renounce their citizenship. We are not all supporters of Tinubu but it’s the choice of his opponents and their supporters what they do with their citizenship. They are sore losers who never thought Tinubu could win given the unfavourable situation that surrounded him then, including the unenthusiastic attitude of President Buhari and his harmful naira colouration policy. But the politicking should stop! It’s governance o’clock.