Opinion: Critical Review of the end bad governance protest

I consider it a legitimate agitation when the people request for bad governance to end.

“Abi”? who does bad governance favour? Neither the government nor the governed. I therefore do not consider the term ‘’end bad governance’’ as a vote of no confidence on the government but a rare opportunity for the government to appraise the impact they have made so far in the social contract between them(the government) and the people(the mandate giver). I call it a social contract because political governance is a social contract where the politician go to the people to solicit for their mandate to deliver good governance to them. The contract therefore binds the government to the people from whom the mandate was procured.

Having laid the foundation above, I return to the core subject matter. I Must state unequivocally that the President is an employee of the people of Nigeria. He was employed after going through the interview process called election as a candidate, whom without compulsion, applied for the job in the first place. Like in every sane employer/employee relationship, there must be an appraiser and review process to ensure the mandate of the employment is adhered to. After one year in office, the employer who are the people have a right to inform the employee how they perceive his performance. The Key Performance Indicators(KPI) in an ordinary workplace. It is my expectation that a good employee will use the opportunity to actually review his or her performance vis-à-vis the expectations. So ‘’end bad governance’’ is a legitimate request. It’s like saying ‘’ dear President Tinubu, our employee, you have not delivered on your KPI so far. Please adjust and end the impacts of the errors’’. As a management staff in few organizations, I have from experience set KPIs for staff under me and periodically sit down with the same staff to review against preset objectives. Let’s see some examples of the impacts that the people feel amount to bad governance that should change.

1. It amounts to bad governance when You carelessly declared on your Inauguration Day that ‘’subsidy is gone’’. The employer felt you should have settled down first, review the whole fuel importation system, declare a state of emergency on ensuring at least a refinery is working and encourage the privately owned Dangote refinery to commence operations within 3 months of your presidency. Then subsidy would have truely be gone. It amounts to bad governance to allow the continuation of subsidy to be shrouded in secrecy today with people estimating that monthly subsidy till now allegedly is still over a Trillion monthly. How else can the government explain the continuing pump price of fuel remaining lower than NNPCL claim that imported fuel landing cost is over a thousand Naira?
2. ⁠It amount to bad governance when the Federal government increased fees of federal universities by over 500% when minimum wage is still at 30,000 Naira. I have a child who is an undergraduate who told me in an emotionally laden voice how many of her classmates have withdrawn because of the inabilities of their parents to pay even the school fees before the increase. Wait a minute, don’t tell me about the student loan. It’s all noise and no action. Which students have accessed the loan so far? How many can meet the conditions for the loan?
3. ⁠It amount to bad governance which must end when the government allow inflation to skyrocket until prices of essential commodities went out of the reach of the common man. Unbridled inflation in my opinion even in elementary economics is a failure of government macroeconomic policies. The president just approved 70,000 minimum wage which amount to about a 100% upward review. Match that with prices of commodities that have gone over 300-500%. A bag of rice was inherited at 7,500 by the APC government. Under Buhari, it went to around 30,000. Today, it’s around 90,000. This mean the minimum wage cannot even buy a bag of rice. Beans which used to be poor man source of protein has gone beyond the price of rice and nolonger affordable. These among other things is why hunger has escalated and the base of the poor masses is ever increasing. More people are entering the poverty index daily. Nigeria was declared as the poverty capital of the world, overtaking Indian with over five times more population.
4. ⁠it amount to bad governance if instead of exploring long lasting solutions, the president is dishing out palliatives. It is alleged the government released bags of rice for distribution to the people. Viral videos has since showed the same bags are being re-bagged for sale to the public. How long can palliatives last? Giving out palliatives is a sign that hunger and poverty have been elevated as a political tool for continued enslavement.
5. ⁠it amount to bad governance if the poor policies of government is making several multinational companies to be closing shops and leaving the country due to the unfavorable business environment. Even local investors are not spared. Dangote was so frustrated recently that he even offered to sell his refinery which has not fully started operations and even declared that the steel industry he wanted to start is cancelled.
6. ⁠it amount to bad governance when the forex is just floated without regards to balance of trade. Fuel importation takes a large chunk of our forex outflows with high importation of other goods as against exports, floating the forex was an ill conceived policy. Hence, Dollar that was exchanging for around 400 Naira is today about 1,600 which is over 400%.
7. ⁠it amount to bad governance when the elected government officials live ostentatious lifestyles and are insensitive to the plight of the ordinary Nigerian. It is bad governance when the president is calling for patience and perseverance whereas he is not. Buying a Presidential jet at over a hundred billion was bad governance taken too far. Building a VP resident with over 21 billion at a time IDPs are sleeping in open fields was bad governance. Where have all the Vice Presidents be staying since the return of democracy? Buying a presidential yatch at a time teeming jobless graduates numbers are rising amount to bad governance. Members of the National Assembly spending hundreds of millions to buy foreign bullet proof SUVs was bad governance.
8. It amounts to bad governance if an average Nigerian today is looking for how to leave the country with “japa” syndrome. It simply mean the government failed in creating the environment for citizens to live decently with legitimate means of livelihood. How many Americans, Canadians, other countries citizens are seeking to relocate and come live in Nigeria just to better their lives?

We can go on and on. So yes. ‘’End bad governance’’ is a legitimate call by the people and it is a clarion call that there is still time to make good impact. Whatever President Tinubu may do, the perception and impact of the people remain the true measure of his government’s effectiveness, not spurious statistics his sychophants can roll out. No matter your good intentions, if the people say ‘’we can’t feel your impact’ or please ‘’ end the bad impact(governance)’, it is a legitimate agitation.

Mr. President, start today to end bad governance.

Anthony Eshemokhai writes from Lagos.