By Donu Kogbara

Shortly after Eid prayers in Lagos on Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser (Communications and Strategy), Dele Alake, issued a statement on his behalf, saying that Nigerians must make sacrifices.

This Sallah message also assured us that our current woes are “bearable” and included the observation that “Allah will not give you a burden that you cannot carry” and a promise that the hardship we are enduring at the moment will eventually be followed by prosperity.

On Tuesday, a video of the President’s convoy went viral on social media platforms. Someone took the trouble to do some counting and informed the world that no less than 109 vehicles were involved. I haven’t seen any rebuttal from the Villa, so I assume that it’s true.

A hundred and nine!  

This profligacy makes me doubt the claim that Tinubu is going to perform miracles that will transform our economy and existences.

I have seen British monarchs driving through the streets of London and their convoys are nowhere near as imperial. Meanwhile, Britain is a sophisticated country and Nigeria is drowning in underdevelopment.

The cost of fuel has soared since President Tinubu ditched the subsidy. Transport, food and other essentials are becoming increasingly expensive with each passing day; and we’re told that a 40% electricity price hike is imminent.

It annoys the hell out of me when pampered, selfish billionaire politicians – whose living expenses and obscene extravagances – are covered by the public purse – sanctimoniously instruct the rest of us to stoically tolerate the financial stress they routinely inflict on us.

It is even more annoying when they bring God into the matter, in a bid to use Him as a PR tool. I guess the “Japa” crowds who are desperately trying to escape from Nigeria as I write haven’t yet seen the memo about Allah not giving us burdens we cannot handle.

The fat cats who preach at long-suffering Nigerians like to insult our intelligence by carrying on as if “we are all in this together”.

Yeah, right!!! Tell it to the Marines!!!

It’s too soon!

Part of the problem we have in this country is that leaders get away with disgraceful failure or rampant mediocrity because too many Nigerians are too easily pleased. After only two weeks in office, Tinubu was being (undeservedly!) hailed as if he was a genius.  

Sure, some of the moves he has made so far may deliver great results in the medium or long-term. But it’s too early too tell!

Meanwhile, other moves for which he is being lavishly praised are nothing to write home about.  

Let me reproduce an anonymous WhatsApp post someone sent me with which I heartily agree:    

Fuel subsidy – gone

Foreign exchange rate – unified

CBN Governor – suspended

EFCC Chairman – suspended

Students Loan Act- signed

Electricity Act – signed

Data Protection Act – signed

Constitution amendment – signed

Chief of Staff – appointed

SGF – appointed

New service chiefs – nominated

END THE SYNCHOPHANCY MADNESS NOW PLS!!

Suspension of the CBN governor is NOT an achievement

Suspension of the EFCC Chairman is NOT an achievement

Appointment of SGF & CoS is NOT an achievement

Sacking service chiefs is NOT an achievement

Fuel subsidy was removed by Buhari (there was no provision for it in the budget for June).

Electricity Act was signed by Buhari on the 17th of March.

 Every new government since 1960 does the same generic act to build its own team. There is nothing new about disengaging appointees of the previous government to form your government.

Obasanjo sacked all the people appointed by the military. Umar Yar’Adua did the same to Obasanjo’s appointees. The same goes for Goodluck Jonathan, Buhari and now Tinubu.

How terribly stupid and embarrassingly foolish are we to call the sacking or appointing of people into the office an achievement?

How?

Reducing the unemployment rate is an achievement. Nigeria presently has the highest rate of unemployment in the world.

Reducing the corruption rate in Nigeria is an achievement

Reducing poverty is an achievement. Nigeria is currently the world headquarters of poverty.

Reducing the embarrassing number of out-of-school children is an achievement

Improved security is an achievement. Within the last two or three weeks over 500 Nigerians have been killed by marauders. In Plateau State alone, more than 200 were massacred.

Reducing child and maternal mortality is an achievement

Improvement in the transportation sector is an achievement

Improving the value and purchasing power of the naira is an achievement

Improving the living standard and life expectancy of Nigerians is an achievement.

Reducing the bogus salaries and allowances of the legislature and the executives is an achievement; after all they don’t buy fuel and they don’t pay for their energy consumption, it’s the masses that bear the burden of the increase in the prices of both commodities.

Tinubu has achieved nothing so far beyond performing generic acts. There is still plenty time to score his administration.

PH Airport insult

Most Rivers people I know are outraged that Port Harcourt Airport has just been named after the late Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo.

Regular readers of this column will know that I am an admirer of Awolowo’s integrity and intellect. Indeed, I published a fulsome tribute to the great man last month on this very page.

However, I am also outraged that the airport in my state capital is not being named after an iconic living or dead Niger Deltan or Rivers indigene.

Given that every other airport that was part of this recent naming exercise was dedicated to someone who hails or hailed from the same general area in which the airport is situated, I see no reason why the airport on my home turf should be an exception.

Honestly, I blame our past two governors, Rotimi Amaechi and Nyesom Wike. Amaechi and Wike also happen to be our past two ministers. In other words, both men have been our main representatives on a national level for years.

But they have been so busy promoting themselves to non-Riverians in Abuja and Lagos and Katsina that they forgot to protect our collective interests and image. They have behaved as if their constituents are mere props in dramas in which they are the stars.

They have fought each other instead of joining hands to build the state together and collecting as many benefits as possible from the centre. They have been the complete opposite of servant leaders.

If Wike and Amaechi had projected their state and brethren more appropriately, we would be more respected. And if we were truly respected, the Federal authorities would not have dared pull this stunt.

I urge them to reconsider the Awolowo thing and emblazon the name of an indigenous hero like Harold Dappa Biriye or King Jaja of Opobo on our airport building. It’s the least they can do after all that we have been through at the hands of the battling Ikwerre duo.