CACOL to Tinubu: Tag timelines to your promises

CITIZENS COMPASS–The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, (CACOL), yesterday, called on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to give timelines for the fulfilment of his proposed promises to Nigerians.

The call became necessary following a nationwide broadcast by the President on Sunday.

CACOL in a statement signed by its Chairman, Debo Adeniran, said that the timelines would ease the living conditions of Nigerians.

It reads, “Reacting to the end bad governance protest which commenced on the 1st of August and continues to spread like fire across major cities in Nigeria, the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, made a national broadcast on the 4th of August when End bad governance entered the fourth day. In his speech, the president acknowledged the demands of the protesters on behalf of Nigerians and promised to address them as soon as possible. The president calls for calm while sympathizing with the families of the people who lost their lives and properties.

“The president also acknowledged the hardships that come with fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate policy of the federal government but according to him, “the policies have blocked the greed and the profits that smugglers and rent-seekers made and blocked undue subsidies extended to our neighbouring countries to the detriment of Nigerian people. He said the government has made significant strides in rebuilding the foundation of our economy to carry us into a future of plenty and abundance, the aggregate government revenues have more than doubled, hitting over 9.1 trillion Naira in the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2023 due to our efforts at blocking leakages, introducing automation, and mobilising funding creatively without additional burden on the people. Productivity is gradually increasing in the non-oil sector, reaching new levels and taking advantage of the opportunities in the current economic ambience and reducing debt servicing from 97% to 68%.”

“We would like to commend the President and his team for the various giant strides his administration has recorded in the last one year or thereabout in office. Some of these laudable achievements which cannot be overlooked are: signing into law the student loan bill which is now being disbursed to students, securing Supreme Court pronouncement for local government financial autonomy, payment of forex backlog, increment in the minimum wage from #30,000 to #70,000, increment in crude oil production from 900,000bpd to 1.6million bpd, creation of the North West and South East Development Commissions, selling of crude oil in Naira, suspension of tariff on imported grains and other essential food items, release of grains to state and local governments to ease the food crisis, among others.

“Having reviewed the key points of the President’s broadcast, we at CACOL observed that there are no timelines to each of the promises the president proposed as he only hammered on the achievements of his administration so far which have not been really felt by Nigerian people. We therefore charges the federal government to give timelines for the fulfilment of the proposed promises to ease the living conditions of Nigerian people.

“Moreover, we have come up with the following recommendations and we expect the President to look at them critically with a view to implementing them.

RECOMMENDATIONS
“All Nigerians whose business capital is not up to 5 million Naira should be exempted from paying tax.

“All essential commodities including foods, books, medicine, etc. should enjoy tax waivers.

“Free education and healthcare should be declared for all children up to the Senior Secondary level in the minimum.

“Grants should be given to indigent students in tertiary institutions while those who are not so indigent should be encouraged to take the option of the student loan his administration introduced.

“Nigeria is unnecessarily encumbered by the weight of its top-heavy and unwieldy system of government it enburdens itself with. Our government consists of three tiers of federal, state and local. Each tier consists of three arms, executive, legislative and judiciary. The federal legislature is bicameral with the Senate and House of Representatives. We would like to recommend that a unicameral legislature in the mould of the House of Representatives is cheaper, easier to maintain and makes government business simpler and faster and should be adopted in Nigeria. At the end of the day, if the Senate is more fashionable, they should name the National Assembly, Senate or simply make it National Assembly. Election of Members should be based on the same criteria upon which House of Representative Members were elected.

“It is also our recommendation that the three tiers of government be reduced to two; the federal and local governments. There is no need for state government. State governments are just discomfiting interlopers, whose roles can be better played as local governments. State governments are the veritable excuses why local governments had not been functioning optimally. That is why state governments don’t want autonomy for local governments.

“We are aware that the constitution provides that at least one cabinet minister should be appointed from each of the component states, our recommendation is that Ministers and state commissioners should also be elected by their respective states or constituencies same way that the federal and state legislators are respectively elected. The president should only have opportunities of appointing personal assistants and not even special advisers. Ministers should play the roles of advising the President on sectorial issues. The president and ministers should only appoint few assistants whose emoluments would be borne by the government for himself and his ministers. Any public servant who wants more assistants should remunerate them from their personal resources. The president must nonetheless put a limit to the number of Assistants employed for them.

“Finally, we believe that the current constitution, the ground norm with which our individual and collective lives are being administered, was foisted upon us by an illegitimate government of the military. It is on this note that we recommend that the government should convene a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) wherein every Nigerian voice would be directly represented and where a new Nigerian Constitution would evolve. SNC is the foundation of a true democracy and nationhood; without it we would only be living under self-denial in a mere political contraption without any true unifying factor and therefore signifying nothing but a keg of gunpowder waiting to explode!!!

“We believe that if the above recommendations are implemented, it would not only reduce the bloated cost of governance in the country but would also douse the current tension being witnessed across the country in the form of protest and wanton looting and destruction of properties.”