There’s been too much hot air about the current trip of President Bola Tinubu to France on a working visit. His visit is not covered in any a secret about at all.
Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga gave the matter all the openness it deserves in the press release that announced the president’s journey. Onanuga said Tinubu would be away to the European country for about a fortnight to enable him deliberate on the challenges of our country and come up with solutions.
He declared: ‘’ During the visit, the President will appraise his administration’s mid-term performance and assess key milestones…He will also use the retreat to review the progress of ongoing reforms and engage in strategic planning ahead of his administration’s second anniversary. This period of reflection will inform plans to deepen ongoing reforms and accelerate national development priorities in the coming year… While away President Tinubu will remain fully engaged with his team and continue to oversee governance activities.’’
I don’t see any obscurity in this simple release to warrant the heavy volume of criticism that has come forth as a result of the France trip.
The recent economic strides in Nigeria have given the president hope that, indeed, the country is at last on the right route to irrecoverable recovery. Let me give just one instance before moving on.
The Central Bank, CBN,
reported a significant increase in net foreign exchange reserves to 23.11 billion dollars. Economic experts have hailed this stride as a testament to the government’ fiscal reforms since 2023 when net reserves were at a low of 3.99 billion dollars.
The sharp difference is clear: from a single digit level performance to a double digit. Naturally, this is bound to reflect in no small measure on a number of indices about the economy, the standards of living of the citizens, expenditure for critical infrastructure in health, education, security, industry etc. If we were distressed some years back about finance to initiate projects to bring about a good life to our people, those days are coming to end, with this good news from the CBN as a result of Tinubu’s bold policies. These are early days, in my view.
We shall yet witness more of the cheering consequences of the totality of the effects of the reforms. When you begin a reform process after decades of stagnation such as the locust period we have passed through here in Nigeria, you don’t expect a quick fix, or instant returns or success. There must be a season to clear the debris of the decadent years. You can’t build your reforms on them, otherwise you’d achieve nothing. Your reforms would not be effectual. It would be like you have not done anything at all. Indeed, you’d be back to ground zero.
This is the reason we’ve always been at a standstill all these years of nationhood since Independence in 1960.
A succession of administrations, military and civilian, builds on what they find on the ground, good, bad, or ugly. So, at the end of the day, it’s a continuation of what we describe as the status quo. It hasn’t helped. It has worsened our situation, threatening not only to bring us to our knees, but also to deal us the mortal blow of making us cease as a nation.
Therefore, I am worried that we are wasting precious time and energy to criticize our president’s noble task of going on a retreat to re-strategize for more reforms to address the nation’s problems, instead of helping to objectively assess his actions and suggest more ideas on the way forward.
There have been two camps of the critics. There are those who say Tinubu shouldn’t step out at all; he should stay put at home in Aso Villat to tackle the problems at home. They argue he can’t settle home problems sitting away from home. Others have said he could travel away from Abuja, but he must find a place in Nigeria for his retreat. So, for this group, overseas trip like the current one of Mr. President shouldn’t be on the table at all.
All these however, shouldn’t be the argument if we seriously view the objectives of the president. We should trust his motives, which are that he passionately believes that getting himself some space outside would lead him to more reflections on sustaining the reforms he’s started with. He believes that close to midway into his four-year tenure there would be new flashes of fresh inspiration to guide him lead the country. That’s always been the purpose of retreats: you go off your beat for a while, to return refreshed, re-fired and renewed for more qualitative service.
This is routine in warfare. When soldiers retreat during hostilities, it is not to leave the battlefield and not return.
Not at all. They go to regroup, re-strategize and rearm for a bigger assault on the enemy. Quite often, the tide changes after the return of such tactical retreats. The returning forces go on the rampage with a new war plan and a new motivation that combine with better fighting gear to secure them victory. Yet, prior to the retreat they were losing the war.
President Tinubu may be a civilian politician who hasn’t been in the armed forces before. He doesn’t handle guns to fight his way in governance. But my reading of his methods in administration reveals that he has given himself to a study of the principles of warfare. They are applicable in any human endeavor, not least in running a government with you as its helmsman.
Seasonally, go away from the theatre of operations to take stock of the past and review your performance with a view to upgrading your work or delivery. When you are thus detached, you have a better grasp of the work you are doing, and therefore a keener and sharper approach to the challenges thrown at you in office. Of course, you no longer look at what is on the ground with old defeatist perceptions; you come back with the mindset of a conqueror.
Oyatomi Esq., is a member of the board of Independent Media and Policy Initiative, IMPI, a think tank based in Abuja.
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