Once upon a time, it was the privileged members of the academia who reportedly lived in the Ivory Tower.
Ensconced in their groove of academe, its exalted members had it all going for them. The streets in the campuses were usually well tarred and paved. The streets were adorned with well-manicured and fragrant flowers and of all hues. The buildings were solid and picturesque. Libraries, with shelves lined with books and journals, were exquisitely designed and built to rivet the reader. Professors lived in well-appointed apartments. Electricity and water ran twenty-four hours a day. Staff canteens and schools abound to cater for wards of lecturers and to provide civilized venues for relaxation and seminal banters….
Little wonder, academics were secluded from the larger society, warts and all, and were sometimes prone to losing touch with reality. Sometimes, as a consequence of their distance and comfort, they churned out arcane and abstruse treatises.
Before President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Muhammadu Buhari was. He came to the presidency with hitherto well-recommended enablers who soon transfigured into starry-eyed and coarse spokespersons. Apart from occasionally pouring invectives on ordinary folks, they excelled in justifying many of the former President’s foreign trips. We were often regaled with the takeaways of those trips and what were in them for Nigerians.
Enter President Tinubu and the justifications for foreign trips were taken to a new surreal low. At the end of each sortie or presidential outing, billions of dollars were announced as having been invested by some foreign entity or businessperson. Such foreign visits were soon latched onto to give a more auspicious picture of the economy. This is when there is no corresponding reflection on the economy which is teetering at the brink.
Very soon, the new normal became such that apart from providing an outlandish and exaggerated improvement on the economy, and which is clearly out of sync with reality, presidential addresses which should be noted for their integrity and solemnity, began to take on these hyperbolic colorations. Presidential speeches, which should be sacrosanct and hallowed, became laced with outright untruths. In one of such speeches, the impression was created that Nigeria’s humongous debt had disappeared. “Just like that!”, pardon the Felaspeak. This new-fangled magic and the proclivity to bandy untruths tend to imbue and inform governance on the watch of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
True, leadership demands that the led are always given hope; and that leaders carry themselves with calm in the face of tempests and challenges. But it is disingenuous, if not intellectually dishonest, to, at any given opportunity, give the people the impression that all is well when matters are going downhill or are going to the dogs. Or to purvey an alternate reality that is patently at variance with what citizens see and experience.
For surely if things were alright or looking up, it is Nigerians, millions of who are multi-dimensionally poor, who should say so by holding up an endearing picture or issuing roof top testimonies to that effect.
It is instructive that even as the Tinubu administration continues to give a more positive picture of the economy and to chime on the advent of billions of dollars in foreign investments, more and more Nigerians are hurting and businesses, big and small, are collapsing. Even as it continues to wax eloquent, by giving a rosier picture of the economy, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is spewing out figures that state otherwise. The NBS recently reported an inflation rate of 33.88% and a food inflation rate of 34.60%.
As if these figures were not grim enough, the prices of foodstuffs across the country have since tripled since President Tinubu declared an emergency on food security in July 2023.
Worse is the near shutdown of the manufacturing sector and the continued exodus of multinational companies from Nigeria. According to the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), not less than 767 manufacturing companies have shut down on President Tinubu’s watch. Another 365 set of companies experienced distress in 2023 as a result of rising inflation and interest rates and the instability of the exchange rate.
According to NAIRAMETRICS, multinational companies continue to be buffeted by economic headwinds and challenges arising from the government’s toxic policies. Companies such as Kimberly-Clark(K-C); Pick n Pay; Equinor Nigeria Energy Company (ENEC); and Diageo have either left or divested.
Even the 2025 Budget, recently presented with relish by the President, is not an antidote to our economic challenges. Neither can it deliver the respite Nigerians desperately require. This is because the budget sets greater store by servicing debt and giving the short shrift to issues that matter. The budget projects a revenue of 34.82 trillion Naira and is expected to expend 47.90 trillion Naira. This will result in a deficit of 13.08 trillion Naira. Clearly, we are living above our league and means. The most pedestrian trader will tell you, after beholding this tragic state of affair, that the budget cannot foster growth. Neither can it engender the prosperity which the government touts.
The Tinubu administration must level with Nigerians and get its priorities right. You cannot, for instance have food security without prioritizing security itself. It is when farmers access their farms and till them that you can have bumper harvests and prices can come down on account of the glut or plenteous harvest. It should scare any right-thinking person that we are having this unprecedented food inflation at harvest season. What will occur in the next few months?
The government should come out of its seclusion and confront our harsh reality. It must cure itself of the affliction of IVORY TOWERITIS. Otherwise, the consequences will be dire for ordinary folks.
