SOME Nigerians have expressed disappointment over unmet expectations and unfulfilled promises by President Bola Tinubu whose administration clocks one year in office tomorrow, Wednesday, May 29.

The citizens, drawn from political and civil society organisations, aired their views on the President’s scorecard on Monday, May 27 at an X space organised by The ICIR. This is part of The ICIR series tagged “Tinubu’s one year in office”.

They highlighted how the President’s first tenure has exacerbated the hardship and suffering of numerous Nigerians.

Despite Tinubu’s campaign and his inauguration day pledges to revitalise the economy, the stakeholders said inflation remained a major issue, eroding the purchasing power of ordinary Nigerians.

They further expressed their concerns over the country’s sluggish economic growth, noting that the cost of living had continued to rise, with many citizens struggling to make ends meet.

The 2023 Labour Party’s (LP) governorship candidate in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, said corruption remained a major challenge in the country.

He said Nigeria would continue to grapple with a series of problems if corruption is not addressed.

“No matter what beautiful plan you have – education and agriculture – they will all fail if you do not tackle or fight corruption,” Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour said.

He said to address hunger and better tackle the economic crises, the nation must make its agricultural and manufacturing sectors productive.

Speaking on widespread demolitions of properties, particularly in Lagos State, Rhodes-Vivour expressed concern over the development, noting that the government is complicit in the ‘illegal’ buildings because it approved them.

He emphasised that regardless of any system flaws leading to developments, the government must respond with compassion and be conscious of the economic hardships faced by Nigerians.

“If the government realises that there are imperfections and compromises in the system that allow the development that they do not intend to have, or goes against their master plan, then government must react to this with sensibility and understanding of the distress, especially in this harsh economic climate that Nigerians are currently dealing with.”

He also noted that “In the event of a building being demolished, the government must approach it with empathy, because people are collapsing and getting admitted to hospital. They need to provide a moving van that will sympathetically help them move their properties”

The ICIR reported how the Lagos State government had marked several buildings for demolition in the Ibeju-Lekki area for lacking approval.

There are several other parts of the state where buildings have been pulled down, either for failing to meet standards or lacking government approval.

One of the demolitions that have attracted the widest criticisms in the state is the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, for which businesses have been destroyed under demolition on the right of way for the project.

In addition to lacking environmental impact assessment, the project raised dust for violating open competitive bidding and the government’s failure to publish bidders at the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) portal before its commencement.

The development led to outrage from concerned Nigerians over the demolition of some buildings and businesses, estimated at over $200 million, around the project take-off point.

At the ICIR X space, the Special Assistant on Digital Media Strategy to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Demola Olarewaju, remarked that Tinubu’s first year had been disastrous and disappointing.

“There is a lot the government can do in terms of cutting the cost of governance because everything is happening at a time when we have the biggest cabinet in Nigeria’s history, almost innumerable presidential appointees and the kind of contrast with how the economic figures are going through. The bottom line is that it has been a difficult one year,” he said.

On her part, a gender and research analyst at BudgIT, Oludamilola Onemano, said there had been a lack of consistency in implementing a policy during Tinubu’s first year in office.

She emphasised how Tinubu’s policies and inflation have made life unbearable for Nigerians.

According to her, the policies are neither effective enough nor transparent.

“These cushions (palliatives) are not effective enough and have no transparency in the distribution, especially in terms of cash transfers. There has been no revalidation of the social register.

“All of these are done in an opaque system, there is no transparency, and we cannot easily say we are assessing the government in terms of budget because there is no transparency in the releases of the budget document and even the treasury portal,” she added.

Mustapha USMAN

Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: [email protected]. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M