•Descends heavily on Buhari’s critics calls them ‘uncharitable’
•’On calls for ex-leader’s probe: Every govt has own pitfalls, successes
• Admits on economy: Things have not gone the way we wanted
• On insecurity: What we now have are isolated    cases of banditry, kidnapping and terrorism
•‘Food is not scarce’

Mr Bayo Onanuga is Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy. Before his appointment into the position, Onanuga was involved in the Tinubu/Shettima campaign. He was also at different times the Managing Director of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) and the chief helmsman of The News magazine. In this interview, Onanuga speaks on the Tinubu administration one year after taking office. He also hinted that former President Muhammadu Buhari may not be probed for allegedly laying the foundation for the currently challenges being faced in the country as is being demanded in some quarters, saying critics have been uncharitable to give the former Nigerian leader credit on the successes he achieved while in office. Excerpts:

 President Tinubu spoke these words among others at his inauguration on May 29, 2023: “On economy we target a higher GDP growth and to significantly reduce unemployment. We intend to accomplish this by taking the following steps: First, budgetary reform, stimulating the economy without engendering inflation will be instituted. Second, industrial policy will utilize the full range of fiscal measures to prompt domestic manufacturing and lessen import dependency. Third, electricity will become more accessible and affordable to businesses and homes alike. Power generation should nearly double and transmission and distribution networks improve. We will encourage states to develop local sources as well”. To what extent will you say the ‘Renewed Hope’ agenda goals of the administration have been met one after one year? 

 Let me say that the past year has been a mixed bag of sort. Things have not gone the way the administration planned and there have been some unintended consequences of some of the policies of government. But when you look at it, the bigger picture is that many things have been done. There are many achievements being recorded. The president spoke about a higher GDP growth in Q3 and Q4 last year. Comparatively to last year’s Q1, we also recorded a higher growth in GDP, about 2.9 percent. So things have not been so terrible as naysayers wish. Let me also say that Nigerians should not forget where we were coming from. Although when the president took over that May 29, the budget he inherited, for instance, showed that 97% of our income would go into debt servicing. So we had virtually nothing left. So, the last administration had to resort to borrowing, borrowing and borrowing to stay afloat. Even the “subsidy is gone” that he announced at that venue, he was just fulfilling a policy, in fact a law that his predecessor had made a fait accompli. By that law, subsidy was supposed to end in June 2023.

By announcing the abrogation, the president merely accelerated things. And, of course, we know that all the candidates who ran for election, especially the three major ones, everybody agreed that subsidy must go. It had become like an albatross on the economy. A lot of money was going to finance it. And of course most of the subsidy was not even being enjoyed by Nigerians. Some people, smugglers were taking subsidized petrol out of the country to make humongous profits. Nigeria was bleeding as the president said recently. It is his duty to stop the bleeding.

The other policy implemented was the harmonization of multiple exchange rates, a practice heavily decried by the World Bank and the IMF. Yes, the two policies created problems in the economy. But they were clearly unintended. Anyone who had read some basic economics will agree that economic policies don’t follow the rules of science. They are always moderated by uncertainties by variables that in Latin are called ceteris paribus, all other things being equal. The president quickly acknowledged the effects of his policies and since then the administration has rolled out many palliative measures to mitigate the effects. Palliatives were offered to nano businesses. Farmers were heavily subsidised for dry season farming. Of recent the CBN released N100 billion worth of fertilisers to boost farm yields. Wage awards were paid to workers at federal and state levels. Even as we’re talking, the palliative announced for transport, to bring down the cost of moving goods and people around, is being implemented. A CNG conversion and refilling centre, along with CNG buses and tricycles were unveiled in Ilorin on Wednesday, May 29. More launching of the CNG assets will be done in the coming days. Bureaucracy is to be blamed as to why it took so long to implement the CNG initiative.

The panel to oversee the implementation was constituted in October last year. Procurement didn’t even begin until February 2024. In fact the president had to call top civil servants to a meeting in the Villa here to warn them not to constitute a cog in his wheel of progress. But as I said, the bigger picture to look at is that what this government has been doing, and what it actually intends to do, is to reset this economy, to really put it on a sustainable path of development and growth. That is the ultimate objective of all the policies and reforms being implemented. They are all tailored to ensure that this country is put on a sustainable path of development and growth.

 Many people still think “the subsidy is gone” statement put out by the president on the inauguration day did a lot of damage to the economy and that the floating of the naira sent the economy into a tailspin. Do you think that is a correct assessment of things now? 

 Well, the subsidy thing was not the president’s programme, so to say. It was already there. He merely announced it. It was supposed to go at the end of June 2023, according to what his predecessor left behind. If he had not done it on Day One, it was possible that things could have gotten worse. Nigeria was already reeling under petrol scarcity; queues in many places and so on because the NNPC, that was the sole importer of petrol, was already in some kind of agony as the government was not redeeming subsidy in trillions owed the company. So, by making that announcement at the Eagle Square, President Tinubu gave the NNPC some breather. The NNPC quickly increased prices so that it could at least recover its expenses on fuel. About the exchange rate, look, Nigeria was being swindled by the policy of CBN that allowed multiple exchange rates. Everybody knew that some people were collecting the money at the official rate and going into the market to offload it and make huge profits for doing no work. There is no government that would allow the arbitrage any longer.

 Let’s look at security. Kidnappers, bandits, terrorists remain active in parts of the country. Do you think the situation is better than what we had when this administration came into office in 2023?

 Of course yes. I was at the ministerial briefing yesterday when the Minister of Defence came. Even from the report card of the National Security Adviser, things have improved. We still have isolated cases, a lot of isolated cases. When security breaches happen in a remote area of Kaduna, those spaces ungoverned by our security agencies, the media will present it in a way as if the entire country is under attack. We have 36 states in this country and the FCT and we don’t have terrorism or banditry in all our states. From the report that the NSA, the Ministry of Defence gave, I would say the security situation has improved. The incidents have reduced. Many of the terrorists, including their kingpins, have been killed, many kidnapped people freed. Even in the Niger Delta, oil thieves, illegal refineries are being busted. Oil production has hit 1.7million barrels a day, a vast improvement over the level that President Tinubu inherited from President Buhari. Even the response rate to threats by our gallant security men has improved. The last time we had a kidnap, a major kidnap in Kaduna, when school children in Kuriga were kidnapped, it took less than two weeks to get them out. Even here in Abuja, when people were kidnapped in an estate, it took our security forces two days to get the captives freed. Our security people should be commended for doing everything possible all the time to make our people more secure. The last Global Terrorism Report covering 2022 showed us as Number 8, behind West African countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso. The report showed which states are most impacted by our enemies, Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Borno. I am sure the next report for 2023 will show that our country has made more progress in tackling the scourge of terrorists. Government is doing quite a lot to ensure that Nigerians sleep with their two eyes closed. And government is providing the enormous resources the security agencies need to do their work.

 Cost of governance remains very high contrary to the expectations of many fans of the president. Many have thought reducing the cost would be a priority within the first few months of being in office with areas being mentioned to include the size of the presidential fleet and personnel costs. Why is it so difficult to reduce costs of governance? 

 Well, it is like work in progress. This government is concerned about reducing the size of government. We can attest to this by the instructions by President Tinubu to cut the size of entourage of officials, by banning travels. The best indicator yet was the decision of the Federal Executive Council to implement some recommendations of the Oronsaye Panel. The SGF chairs the panel saddled with the implementation. I believe we shall see some action in this regard as the president begins his second year in office. We must give kudos to this government that at least it’s making efforts to implement Oronsaye recommendations. President Jonathan, who set up the panel, and President Buhari did not do so. The other aspect about personnel; the president cannot just go out there and start reducing the staff or cutting the size of the civil service. Most of the people working in the civil service, they’re actually just being maintained there by government as a kind of social service. If you go to the secretariat here in Abuja, what you find is that many people are just milling around there and so on. But if this government says it wants to send those idle workers home, you can imagine what the labour people will say. So, the idle workers will continue to remain on the payroll as a social service, a welfare programme. You cannot retrench them as this will create more problems for this country. But what government has done, and what even the preceding government had done was to ensure that there are no ghost civil servants on the payroll.

 Some people have alleged that the government has appointed more ministers than even the previous administration and while the government at the centre is talking about cutting cost. How do you reconcile that?

 I don’t see any contradiction there. If you look at the portfolios of those ministers, what the president wants is for the ministers to do their work more intensely than before. For example, let’s take the Youth Ministry. There are so many things to do in youth development. NYSC is there. The demography today shows we have more youths than those of us who are in our 60s or 50s. Our population is now dominated by youths. So, there are so many things to do. If you even look at government policies, a lot of programmes have been rolled out to take care of this demography that’s so important in our country today. There are many programmes under the Youth Ministry such as Youth Enterprise Initiative, being executed. The Bank of Industry is also executing a $617 million programme that is meant to help start-ups. NELFUND, the student loan scheme, is youth-focused so that we don’t leave any youth behind. So, government is doing so many things to help our young people. That’s just one example. There are other examples, Marine and Blue Economy Ministry, excised from Transport. Recent report by the minister shows that some progress is being achieved. You look at Education Ministry. There are so many areas that it covers. Not one person can handle that ministry and that’s why he appointed two persons there. Culture and Creative Economy Ministry was created out of Information Ministry. And I know that the minister who is there is making efforts to justify the separation and ensure that the country makes a lot economic gains from its abundant creative talents. So, in having 47 ministers, all the president wants is that the ministers focus on their areas of responsibility more intensely and deliver on government’s eight-point agenda. I can assure you many of the ministers are performing.


Food insecurity continues to be a big problem and the situation that has been created is that not much is being done in this regard. I know the insinuation may not be correct, but the fact is people are hungry. What do you have to say? 

 I don’t agree that government is not doing a lot of things about food. In fact, this government when it came, as far back as September or so, announced a food emergency. If a government announces a food emergency just some months after it came in, it shows that it’s not a problem that it actually created, the problem predated that government. Before the government came, farmers were complaining that they were unable to go to their farms, and farmers who actually planted in 2022, 2023, they also complained that they didn’t make money from their produce. That was the time Emefiele starved Nigerians of money. So many farmers in disgust did not go back to their farm. So that created scarcity. We must give kudos to our farmers, they can produce enough to feed our people and spare some for export. What is happening, essentially, it is not that food is scarce, food is available but it’s being priced beyond the reach of many Nigerians, especially vulnerable Nigerians. A lot of Nigerians are not earning enough to take them through the entire month, the money is very small, their wages are small and that’s why government introduced a lot of palliatives, wage awards for federal workers, some governors also announced wage awards to help the people. Private companies also followed suit and announced wage increases to increase the purchasing power of their workers. Food became expensive because of many factors: Bad roads all over the country not created by this government, it inherited them; insecurity. Farmers say they are unable to go to the farm, and so on. But there is enough food even as we speak, there is enough food in the country, but the people just don’t earn enough to buy. Nigeria is not so fantastically rich as we have been made to believe. Nigeria is a poor country, a country of over 200 million people. Our per capita income shows this. What Saudi Arabia earns from oil alone, if you divide by its population, it is about 15,000 dollars per head. If you divide what we earn a year compared to our population, it is just 150 dollars per Nigerian, as one analysis pointed out recently. The challenge of this government has been how to change that narrative, to bring more prosperity to our people. That is the focus of President Tinubu. President Tinubu has been laying the foundation to drive us to prosperity. Watch out, in the next one year or so, you will begin to see the result of his effort.

 You mentioned the issue of wage award. But we know that for about three months, that wage award has not been paid. I think the last month it was paid was in February.

 The wage award is for six months. It began in September 2023. Payment ended in March or so. 
 Now, human rights suddenly became an issue after two journalists were arrested by security forces without due process followed. Many people think the incidents have dented the democratic credentials of the Tinubu government. I know you may have a contrary view.

 Of course, I don’t agree. How can you just extrapolate one arrest or two arrests and say that those arrests have dented the democratic credentials of this government? There were reasons for the arrests. The Minister of Information intervened in the first one and got the DIA to release affected journalist. The journalist wrote a libelous report he could not prove, that he lacked documents to support. His organisation has apologised after the person accused got his lawyer to write the organisation. Even the recent one by the police was based on a petition from Enugu. According to the IGP, the journalist was invited by the police to respond to the allegation against him. He avoided the police, ran to Abuja. So they came to look for him in Abuja.

 And as I’m speaking to you, the Inspector General of Police, when he spoke at the ministerial press briefing on Friday, said the man has been bailed. You see, journalists should not think they cannot be arrested. If a journalist has done something wrong, or is being investigated, he should not just shun the police. If the police call him, he should go there. They are not going to eat him alive. Hire a lawyer, state your own side of the case and, and that is it. I was a victim of things like that before, even under military government. They came to us, took us away, locked us up. Then we called our lawyers, we stated our case and they got us out of the place. So journalists should not think that they cannot be arrested because they are journalists. When we talk about freedom, it does not actually mean licentiousness. Freedom has its own responsibility, it comes with its own responsibility. And I want to implore our journalists not to think that because they are members of the 4th Estate of the Realm, they are above the law. 

 If you are to score the Tinubu’s administration on the scale of 1% to 100% on its performance one year after, what would be your score? 

 I will not score Tinubu now. But what I will say is that so far, so good. This race is a marathon. We’ve only done a quarter of the race. One year is too short. As I said, this government has laid some foundations for a lot of things. It wants to embark on massive housing. And it has started. Look at what it is doing on roads, Very ambitious road programme, unprecedented. It is doing the Lagos-Calabar superhighway. It wants to do Illela Sokoto-Badagry highway, abandoned by Obasanjo as military ruler. It wants to fix about 330 bridges and roads all over the country, the roads abandoned by previous governments before Buhari. Look at that bad road from Lokoja to Benin, or the East-West road that we have been doing for more than 20 years. A lot of them are going to be fixed by this administration. So, government will be hyperactive on roads. It is doing rail too. Of recent, the Port Harcourt-Aba Rail became functional. I think this weekend, or by Monday or so, the FCT will start the commercial operation of the Abuja metro. The commercial train service was started in 2018, but after some two years, it was abandoned, but the present government has made sure that all the defects, all the problems associated with it are fixed. And by Wednesday, I think, it will come into full operation. The service will be free for two months. But I foresee the president extending the free ride, as part of palliatives. So many things are on the table of this government. And that’s why I said I cannot score the government. With what I know, very, very soon, Nigerians will see our country turned into a construction yard because government has a lot of plans on housing, roads, rail and so on. That’s why it’s launching the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund. We have been taking baby steps in the last one year. We are going to go on the canter in the next 12 months. 


This administration is only one year old and we are already talking about 2027. And there are even thoughts about a gang-up by key opposition figures against APC in the next election cycle. What are your thoughts?

 This government is not talking about 2027. This government is busy about implementing the mandate it got from Nigerians. It’s only the opposition who are already ganging up and talking about 2027. I believe that it’s irresponsible on their part. What the president has done all these 12 months is to focus on governance. He’s not thinking about 2027.The immediate thing he’s focused upon now is governance, how to improve things in our country, how to put our economy on a better pedestal, and how to improve the lots of our country generally, create more jobs, build infrastructure, and make our country more prosperous. 


It has been suggested in many quarters that the foundation for the economic challenges that took place as a nation today was laid by former President Buhari through the recklessness of his administration. And some think he should, in fact, be probed and prosecuted. What do you think?

 
 I don’t want to talk about the Buhari government. Every administration will have its own pitfalls and successes. I think Nigerians are very uncharitable when it comes to President Buhari. He has his own style, no doubt about that. And some of you didn’t like his style. But I’ll tell you in terms of infrastructure, some of the defining laws, like PIA, he did a lot, although he didn’t finish everything. That’s why we have a new government. Buhari did a lot, he did some roads. Don’t forget, the Lagos-Ibadan road that the PDP failed to do for almost 16 years, Buhari completed 99% of it. And he did some other strategic roads. The Apapa Port, Tincan Island Port, up to Lagos toll gate in Ketu, Buhari did it. Buhari did Lagos-Ibadan rail. He did so many things but I don’t know why people were just not charitable to give him the credit. I think the man did a lot for our country. And in that line, I will not join the bandwagon saying he laid the foundation, no. He had his own pitfalls. But to me, he did a lot for this country.

 What is your advice to Nigerians going forward?

 I think I will sue for patience and understanding of Nigerians. Nigerians are quite a lucky people. If you look around, if Nigerians look around, check what is happening in our neighbouring countries. We will really find that we are a lucky set of people, living in this geographical space. The fuel we are saying is expensive, in our neighbouring countries, it costs 100 percent more. If you just go to Benin or Togo or go to Chad or Niger, even Cameroon, you pay double what you are paying in Nigeria. So, Nigerians, we should say we are lucky. What we need to improve now in our country is to bring prosperity to our people, to see how government can enhance their earning power, how government can produce cheaper food or make available cheaper and affordable housing. And I can tell you this government is embarking on very ambitious housing projects, with 25 years mortgage, the way it used to be in the 70s, 80s.And I think if all these policies are in place, our people will feel the spirit of prosperity. And people will begin to see that there is a big change in their welfare and their standard of living. 


What do you say to Atiku and Obi among other opposition figures who have been criticizing Tinubu and the administration, especially on its major projects, including the Lagos-Calabar projects and the proposed deployment of pensions fund for infrastructure? 

 I don’t know why Atiku and his ally Peter Obi condemned the Lagos-Calabar superhighway. If you check today, if they leave their petty policies aside, they will find out that in many countries of the world, where you have the coast, that’s where the bulk of the money actually is. In America, the west and east coasts are more prosperous. So, if Tinubu conceives an idea that’s going to link nine states that are abutting  the Atlantic, I believe it’s a project that everybody, every right thinking person in the society should really support. But they are playing petty politics, what Nigerians call “bad-belle” because they are not the people who are conceiving and implementing the project. They are jealous. Maybe they are also not looking at the bigger picture of what that project will earn for our country. What I’m aware is that similar ones all over the world, where we have coastal roads, they help in boosting tourism, they help not just in linking people together, but also boosting the economy of the country. In our own case, the Calabar road to Lagos, we believe that it will reduce the travel time from Lagos to Calabar, to about 4 hours which I think is a good thing.

 There’s so much noise about the N90 billion voted for the sponsorship of pilgrims to Mecca by the administration, as critics believe it is just to curry favour from the North and trying to be politically correct, at a time we should be tightening our belt because of critical economic issues. Should the president not play the role of a statesman rather than being seen to be playing politics?
 Who is my governor in Ogun State pandering to? He’s picking up the bill of the rate differentials in the BTA that they’re giving Ogun pilgrims. He is a second term governor, is he doing it for the next election when he is no longer the candidate? Look, government exists to cater for the welfare of people. And the president, if he’s approving some money to help pilgrims, he’s just fulfilling his role to take care of Nigerians who are going on pilgrimage. And I’m sure when the times come for Christians to also proceed on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem or Italy or wherever they go, this government will also be available to offer some help. 

Lastly, there are pockets of opposition to this government from the North. The latest of which is the accusation from the Northern Governors Forum which said North East has been neglected. What do you make of this? 

Well, all I know is that no part of the country is being neglected by this administration.