Protests: Address Nigerians Now, Reshuffle Cabinet, Babachir Tells Tinubu
A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Engr. Babachir Lawal has advised President Bola Tinubu to immediately address the nation, outlining immediate and long-term measures out of the current economic quagmire, if indeed he is desirous of staving off the planned nationwide protests against his administration.
His position came as one of Nigeria’s policy think-tanks, the Independent Media and Policy Initiative IMPI sued for calm in the wake of calls by some elements for a nationwide protest, saying an assessment of President Bola Tinubu’s intervention in Agriculture indicates food prices will soon crash.
While it lauded the federal government over the suspension of import duties and taxes on essential food items, the group urged the protest organizers to shelve their plans, as these policies would begin to bear fruits in a matter of weeks.
Addressing journalists Tuesday in Abuja, for the third quarter of the year 2024, Chairman of the IMPI, Chief Niyi Akinsiju, said it was gratifying to note that President Tinubu’s policies have begun to show initial capacity to redress the challenges they were conceived to address.
He said it is on record that the federal government has distributed 60, 452 metric tons of improved seeds, 887, 255 metric tons of seedlings, 138 value kits, 501, 726 litres of agrochemicals, 62, 328.5metric tons of inorganic fertilizers, 1,000kg fungicides, and 33, 200 equipment to farmers across different value chains to enhance agricultural production.
Chief Akinsiju said; “This flurry of President Tinubu’s interventions in Agriculture has at the last count, successfully generated a total of N309bn into the economy in one year, suggesting a resurrection of exporting activities in the agriculture sector. On aggregate, the recent waiver of import duties and tax on food importation will make food abundantly available and affordable locally.
“Grounded on this projection is the $ 20 billion foreign investment commitments the federal government had secured to revolutionize the agricultural sector, in the bid to ensure food security in the country and to reinvent Nigeria’s pride of place as the agricultural giant of Africa.
“Besides, the creation of the Ministry of Livestock Development may have opened a new vista in concerted efforts to advance agriculture. This initiative reveals the true intention of the President to harness Nigeria’s huge livestock potentials and to find a lasting solution to the incessant Farmers-Herders clash in the country as well as reinforce the value chain that will create more employment opportunities”, he added.
Lawal said Tinubu should in his address come up with persuasive arguments intended to placate the angry and hungry citizens.
“Under the current climate, Nigerians cannot be intimidated by this government nor do they respect it. So avoid the macho tough talk. In the proposed address to the nation, enumerate concrete and believable policies of government intended to address current challenges on an immediate, medium and long term basis”, he stated.
Calling for a mix of technocrats and politicians in the Cabinet, Lawal said politicians are more adept at communicating with the people and have more stake in the successes or failures of a government.
“These Lagos technocrats who now fill the MDAs lack knowledge of the workings of Nigeria. Majority of them are rude, inaccessible, clannish”, he said.
The former SGF also told the president to purposefully address the excessive nepotism in this government, noting that “the South West dominates this government excessively and obnoxiously”.
He added that the current Senate leadership operates a dictatorship in which no dissent is tolerated.
“This is insidiously building an imperceptible revolt that might soon explode. For example, Senator Ndume was sincerely speaking truth to power when he said the president is unreachable. A slavish legislature is neither good for your long-term interests or that of the country at large.
“People are taking exceptions to these ways of handling contrary opinions in the polity. In the north we have taken great exception to how you (or people acting on your behalf) maltreated, Nasiru, Ningi, Ndume and lately Dangote.
“Your very close associates are also busy meddling in the affairs of Senior traditional institutions in the North West which we believe has the intended purpose of dismembering northern political and social harmony and hegemony. In the South East, your fixation on Peter Obi and the unfair treatment of Igbo businesses in Lagos is unsettling. There is also no denying the fact that political crises in Rivers State would been long settled had the President shown an inclination to resolve them. It is instructive that no individual or institution in the South West has suffered such unjust treatment.
“These kinds of situations are some of the triggers of the current discontents across the nation because they generate dispersed pockets of frustration and malcontents that eventually aggregate into a large whole resulting in bad blood against the person of the President and the government”, said Lawal.
He also declared that the military has blatantly ignored the fact that internal security is wholly the constitutional responsibility of the Nigerian Police Force, wondering why they have been warning against the planned protests.
