•I’ll not spare incompetent officials, vows president
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
President Bola Tinubu, yesterday, at the maiden edition of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), gave marching orders to ministers to roll out action plans aimed at reviving the economy and make life more bearable for the people.
He further charged them to work as a team, insisting that if they stayed focused as they discharge their responsibilities, the country would move forward.
President Tinubu stressed that the natural endowments of the country must be properly harnessed to make life better for citizens of the country. He assured them that he was ready to listen to the yearnings of Nigerians and make corrections where necessary as he enjoined the ministers to be bold in taking decisions that would move the nation forward.
Tinubu also said challenges confronting the nation like security, unemployment and food security would be addressed in order to alleviate the plight of citizens.
He noted that the country would rely on their experience, skill, intellect and networking to make headway in the challenging times, and failure would not be explained away under his watch.
“As I said during the inauguration, I am the bus driver and you are the conductors. We have to make sure this country stays on the right path to succeed on behalf of over 200 million Nigerians. We willingly accepted the appointment and I accepted the mandate of Nigerians.
“I have delegated some of these powers to you to serve the country. You are a very lucky person to be selected among millions of Nigerians and we will use the opportunity to show that Nigeria has what it takes to dig ourselves out of our problems. We must find a home-grown re-engineering of our finances, manage our resources and let the economy work for the people of this country. There are so many things some cynics will say is impossible, but in your dictionary of service, everything is possible and must be possible. We have the talents; we have the level of intellectual capacity to turn this country around.
“You and I know that the expectation is high and it’s a tough time right now. We must work hard, commit ourselves and create a buoyant economy that will serve every Nigerian. We have an employment level that is unacceptable. We are threatened by climate change. We still have underemployment.
“But to turn things around, you have been selected to perform your utmost best. The policy agenda will be set out to reform the economy to deliver sustainable and inclusive growth, and strengthen national security for peace and prosperity. Without security there can be no investment. That is true. You have to convince them and the time is now to do that. When you look around the world, every leader is clamouring for what they believe on what should be there policy on food security. We have declared a state of emergency. What is your goal?
“Every one of you is a member of this team, every one of you, no partitioning. We can do whatever we want from the assignment of responsibility, but all depends on you, if you stay focused, we will all arrive at a better destination and the country will be better off for it.
“We must unlock the energy and natural resources of this country. We must start producing for ourselves, and dig ourselves out of the hole. We must focus on education, healthcare and social investment that is essential for the development of our people.
“Our priority areas are defined in our economic programmes. Every area is our priority and you belong in the driver’s position to realize and make that priority a fulfilling promise to the entire nation and the continent of Africa.
“You must achieve the economic growth that is expected of us. We must feed our people. We must leverage on what we have and grow more to satisfy Nigerians. It is all in your hands now.
He assured the ministers again that he would be willing to listen to them whenever they have concerns, saying, “I am ready to listen. Like I said to NBA, I am ready even for corrections, only God is perfect. Don’t be afraid to take decisions, that’s the burden of leadership. I know some of you are still looking for offices. I believe the SGF, COS, HOSOF will work as a team to settle you down quickly.”
Drawing a pictorial analogy of the task before the government, Tinubu said, “imagine yourselves that in this situation you have been called upon to fetch water from a dry well. The challenges are there but we will deliver for Nigerians.”
Five ministers, including those of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris; Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun; Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Ali Pate; Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari; and that of Industry, Trade and Investment, Doris Anite; as well as the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, briefed the press on the outcome of the meeting.
Edun said he presented “Roadmap for the Economy”, noting that the Council agreed that the economy is not where it ought to be.
He also said Council examined eight priority areas and identified targets to deliver in the next three years, adding that the President had charged the ministers to roll out policy and programme to turn the economy around.
He said Tinubu emphasised the high expectations of Nigerians and encouraged the ministers to be bold and courageous and innovative and to act with urgency in delivering a better life to all Nigerians.
“Essentially we went through an exercise of looking at where things stood, regarding the economy, the growth rate, the exchange rate, inflation, unemployment and so on. The overriding conclusion is that we’re not where we should be and we also examined the President’s eight-point agenda, that is the eight priority areas for moving the Nigerian economy forward and for delivering to Nigerians and those are basically food security; ending poverty, economic growth and job creation, access to capital, particularly consumer credit, inclusivity in all its dimensions, particularly as regards youths and women, improving security, improving the playing field on which people and particularly companies operate, rule of law, and of course, fighting corruption.
“It is around those matrix that the plans and the targets of what will be delivered in the next three years or so were identified, discussed and imputes were given by various ministers and we’ll now go away with the marching order to refine further the targets in particular and within weeks to start rolling out policies and programmes to turn around the economy and make things better for all Nigerians. That really is the substance of what the discussion was all about,” Edun said.
Edun said Tinubu inherited a bad economy with an unacceptable high rate of unemployment, with inflation standing at 24 per cent.
“Per capital has fallen steadily, inflation is at 24 percent, unemployment is high, you know they are rebasing the way in which it’s calculated. Either way, it is high and youth unemployment is even unacceptably high, these are the key metrics that we have met.”
Meanwhile, Ngelale said Tinubu has benchmarks with timelines for the ministers and would not hesitate to fire any member of his cabinet who is unable to achieve set goals.
“President Bola Tinubu is someone who has the results. He says ‘these are your benchmarks, I know what I want you to achieve, I’m not expecting you to just come up with some plan when you get there. I’m telling you the time frame within which I expect you to achieve.’ And if you don’t, there are consequences. He’s ready to fire a minister at the drop of a dime if he is not getting what he wants. Absolutely,” he said when he appeared on a live television programme.
Ngelale defended the number of ministers appointed, believed to be the highest in the country’s annals, saying the president places a premium on specialisation for enhanced performance.
“In his view, there was an urgent need for hands-on specialisation in the federal government. Based on the level of the deficit, if we can enhance specialisation and ensure that we slim it down, get housing into the hands of Musa Dangiwa, whose experience reforming the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria suits well to the reform of the housing sector. That’s all he has to face.”
“He doesn’t need to worry about power or work. The president said if I am going to put a minister in place who has a sole focus, there is no excuse for failure. And at that point, you can now say we can hold them accountable.”