By Ikeddy ISIGUZO
BOLA Ahmed Tinubu would never learn how to be President even if he spends eternity on the job. It gets worse by the day as his unfitness for the role comes from his own insensitive to Nigerians who bear the brunt of his apathetic leadership.
Stepping out of the aircraft, Tinubu’s first words were, “I really enjoyed myself. Fantastic”. He blurted those words out as if he had spent time on the Paris to Lagos trip rehearsing them. He then launched into empty words about his renewed fitness to kick and walk or work?
The President who said he would be away for three weeks did four weeks, enjoying himself. As the President enjoyed himself, Nigeria was at a point with no President, no Vice President. And nobody was designated as being in-charged.
Nigeria ran on auto pilot in those days with Tinubu’s most notable achievements being a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron who Tinubu bade farewell as he headed to the United Nations General Assembly. Tinubu was content enjoying Paris and was absent at “presidents only” high level meetings at the United Nations for the third straight year.
The whole facade of the President being on a working vacation collapsed in the face of no tangible results from the absence of the President.
It was while Tinubu was away that the worsening state of federal highways unravelled while the new Minister of Electricity applauded himself for a great job though electricity supply remains erratic.
Minister for Works, David Umahi, always beyond embarrassment, could not account for his stewardship over public highways. He has lately found his tongue in criticising Peter Obi and spewing praises of Tinubu’s abhorrent administration.
Tinubu was boasting of enjoying himself to people he had subjected to incremental hardships as witnessed in the new price of petrol, rising insecurity and the confirmed policies of a government had never cared since it hit the ground running on 29 May 2023.
Only the deceit of the Tinubu government is worse that its punishment of Nigerians. The Independence Day speech reeks of that deceit. Nigeria has leapt from poverty to prosperity because Tinubu made a speech saying so when he has no plans to ease the burdens he heaped on the people.
His propaganda on cutting the cost of transportation from 1 October collapsed before taking off. Anyone who saw Tinubu meeting with Governors in August for a project that was two months away would know it was another of his hope drained policies.
Tinubu was celebrating States that had acquired a couple of CNG buses for the project to reduce high transport fares. Just as the buses were few, so were the number of States that bought into the project.
But you would see the CNG buses being counted as his achievements even for a project that was an unmitigated disaster. Where are the buses? How were a sprinkling of buses to crash cost of transportation nationwide?
As usual, the first class brains in government, maintained at high cost to suffering Nigerians, have never mentioned CNG boats for the coastal communities whose existence is further abridged by the crude mining of oil and gas in their areas with the attendant menace of pollution.
Nothing is new about CNG which Tinubu now talks about as if his scientists invented it. Labour had proposed CNG before the arrival of Tinubu with all his noise and nothing else.
On 1 October 2023, an item on a State House press statement had said, “CNG Buses Commitment: The federal team committed to fast-tracking the rollout of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses to lower public transportation costs for workers”. This was a communiqué from a meeting between Tinubu’s team and organised Labour – three years ago.
Tinubu did nothing about Labour’s demand for measures to ameliorate the high cost of removing fuel subsidy immediately on Tinubu’s inauguration.
How does one explain three years of doing nothing and trying to paper over the suffering of the people of the people with “I enjoyed myself?” Millions of Nigerians should draw satisfaction from knowing that their ever-absent President was abroad enjoying himself as the country takes steps towards more suffering for majority of Nigerians who bear the brunt of an administration that majors in bragging in minors like sitting plans at a United Nations General Assembly that Tinubu knew he wasn’t attending.
Without empathy, with no thought about the unceasing suffering of Nigerians,Tinubu on 1 October 2026 told us that the suffering was over. We were stepping into the era of prosperity with a wave of Tinubu wand.
He would decree prosperity on suffering Nigerians and it would so be. Inflation has been abolished. Insecurity is gone. Unemployment has fled. The empty pockets of Nigerians have been filled with slices of Tinubu’s prosperity through the magic wand of his over-stayed overseas trip.
Sick Nigerians can pay their hospital bills. Their children, those not on Tinubu’s scholarships, are back in school, safe from kidnappers and terrorists. Cost of doing business has crashed and the Naira has regained its pre-Tinubu value.
Tinubu has set the tune for his campaign. The messiah has rescued Nigeria. Tinubu is the saviour. The pains are gone.
Pains and sufferings are only available to those who have refused to enjoy the economic measures of Tinubu’s reformed Nigeria. They are among the few who dare make comparisons with the decadent past from which Tinubu has detached Nigerians.
Nigerians have a duty to ourselves and unborn generations in January 2027 to reward Tinubu for the celebrated chaos he brought to our lives without any remorse about his bumbling failures.
What has Tinubu done to improve your life as an individual? Does his insensitive remark about enjoying himself reflect in your own life?
Tinubu does not care about Nigerians. He has no qualms telling Nigerians so.
Finally…
.IMAGES of former of Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar recuperating after a knee cap replacement surgery in India was one of the past week’s lows for Nigeria. That an Indian hospital was advertising its business with a Nigerian leader of that ranking says a lot about how Nigeria is respects herself.
.WEEKS after Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike boasted on national television on how he manipulated the 2023 election for the benefit of candidates of his choice, he is still a free man. The security agencies cannot invite him for questions. But folks in Borno can be arrested for wearing t-shirts that ask Tinubu to leave their lives alone.
.AMBASSADOR Jimoh Ibrahim, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations in New York, is angry that Nigerians do not appreciate his efforts. Jimoh pulled off his best skills to secure a seat next to America President Donald Trump at the General Assembly for Tinubu.
Jimoh has had a hard time explaining the sitting arrangement which he had announced to Nigerians as a defining moment in America-Nigeria relations. The seat apparently evaporated the moment Tinubu dodged New York. Jimoh still managed to get Nigeria a seat in Row 6, ahead of other countries. Unimpressed Nigerians do not see any value in Jimoh securing a seat for a President who chose Paris over New York. What else has Jimoh achieved in NewYork?
.LAGOS State Commissioner for Waste Management and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab on X responding to a critic of his performance who strayed into Tokunbo’s watches, “As for my wristwatches, I wear at least two at a time, and the least expensive of them costs no less than $80,000. They are among the finest collections from the Swiss watchmaker Patek Phillipe.
“Poor-minded, ignorant clown!”
Two of his “least expensive” watches cost at least $160,000 or about N224 million. And he is bragging to the public and calling someone an “ignorant clown”. What does a Commissioner do to have enough to spend N224 million on two cheap watches, the way he sounded.
On the Lagos State Government website, Wahab is described as, “The cerebral Tokunbo Wahab, popularly called TKW, is highly skilled in public speaking and communication, budgeting and resource allocation, emotional intelligence, strategic planning and decision-making, team leadership and collaboration, ethics and professionalism, stakeholder engagement, and time management, among other things”.
.KILLINGS, kidnappings have continued in different parts. Now the President is back, he should kick them out with his Paris fitness. Imagine some kidnappers asking for N950 million for some NYSC members they are holding. Is it possible they heard is about borrowing $1.5 billion and they want a cut?
.HOW can alterations in a government premises lead to a fight involving thugs and death of a Deputy Director in the Delta State Ministry of Higher Education? The Commissioner involved is already in detention.
LAURETTA Onochie shared pictures of her wearing TINUBU MUST GO t-shirt. Has she been arrested or are arrests only meant for lowly Nigerians in Borno?
*ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues