- Says President deserves accolades after 8 months in office
By Chesa Chesa
In spite of the economic turbulence swaying the country, the eight-month old administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu deserves high marks for so far delivering on its Renewed Hope Agenda, says public policy advocacy group, the Independent Media & Policy Initiative (IMPI).
Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, chairman of IMPI, Chief Niyi Akinsiju, said the group came to its conclusion after thoroughly reviewing the conceptualisation and deployment of policies across multifarious sectors by Tinubu’s government.
The group reviewed Tinubu government’s fight against corruption, and urged the President not to bow to pressure, but ensure that the report of investigation and those of other government officials under investigation be made public in the spirit of transparency.
“We take notice of the President’s swift response to corruption allegations against a member of his cabinet, Dr. Betta Edu, by suspending and ordering her investigation.
“Without prejudice to the outcome of the ongoing investigation, we urge the President to not bow to pressure, but ensure that the report of that investigation and those of other government officials under investigation be made public in the spirit of transparency.
“This will go a long way to sending clear signals to local and international audiences about the Tinubu administration’s seriousness to tackle the scourge of corruption as recently observed by the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken during a recent visit to Nigeria”, Akinsuji said.
He stressed that Tinubu was putting in place new building blocks to serve as the bedrock of a new model for national economic growth and socio-political development”, Akinsiju said.
Delving into some details, he said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has in place some measures that would address the challenges of the Naira in the foreign exchange market regarding Tinubu’s decision to float the national currency.
Also, Akinsiju explained that “currently the Nigerian Stock market takes a pride of place as the number one stock exchange globally, principally driven by domestic investors, which as at 2023, accounted for 88.52% of total market value.
“This is a confirmation of the existence of conducive environment for foreign investors to invest across the Nigerian investment ecosystem.”
According to him, the removal of fuel subsidy triggered the immediate positive outturn on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) consumption and related revenue earnings compared to the pre-subsidy removal regime.
This, he said, led to a quantum leap in total gross revenue going into the Federation Account and allocations to the three tiers of government from N786.161bn in May 2023 to a high of N1.1trn in August, as the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited stopped its contentious “under-recovery” to artificially keep prices down.
The IMPI chieftain continued: “For the first time in the history of FAAC, the Federal Government of Nigeria started cultivating the culture of savings from revenue accruals beginning from the over N700bn that was saved in July last year when the FAAC received the sum of N1.959 trillion.
“This has marked a turning point in Federation accruals and revenue generation with implications for budget performance.”
In the face of rising food inflation, IMPI said it findings indicated a commitment by President Tinubu to stemming the tide of rising food prices and ensuring food security by approving the accelerated cultivation of 500,000 hectares of land across the country in collaboration with state governments.
The group pointed out that “this, in itself, is a commendable model of cooperation between the federal government and the sub-nationals. We are certain that in a short while, Nigerians will start receiving the products of the federal and sub-national governments working together.
“To crystallise the policy, the administration has introduced an irrigation programme to facilitate and guarantee all-year round farming.
“Our investigation within the general purview of agriculture implicates the deployment of several policies including waivers on the importation of tractors and farm implements, the recent launch of dry season farming in Jigawa State and the allocation of N102bn to the National Agricultural Development Fund (NADFUND) to mention just a few.
“It is our view that these measures will guarantee adequate food supply in the shortest possible time.”
