Security: Tinubu is turning fear to hope

One challenge that the Bola Tinubu administration has is modesty. Surprisingly so, we thought that those who made noise instead of news under Muhammadu Buhari would naturally flow into this regime, like a river flowing into the ocean. But gone are the days of Lai Mohammed and his Goebbels-level propaganda. Now, this is a double-edged sword. Modesty is, after all, a virtue. But when you have networks like Arise TV and a movement, like Obidients, you might have to do a little more chest-beating. If not, you may receive a good beating in the media.

The Obidient movement cannot match BATists in savvy politics, political networking and getting out the votes. But they can and will defeat this administration in gaslighting and propaganda if they do not step up their game.

The new Ministry of Information and National Orientation has moved away from the propaganda of the past to a more engaging one. Every MDA is invited to engage with Nigerians in critical areas that affect them. The recent outing of the minister and his team to Lagos, Kano, Jigawa, Kebbi etc and others to meet with Nigerians in town hall meetings is unique, and Lanre Issa-Oniru of the National Orientation Agency’s efforts to keep even us in the opposition informed, via his ‘The Explainer’.

Without the information ministry and Lanre, I would still have been fighting this government, ignorant of their strides.

First, the economic miracle that the Tinubu administration has pulled off with the floated Naira needs to be studied at ivory towers around the globe. Harvard Business School would have to develop a course to learn and replicate Nigeria’s recent economic revamp.

Never in the history of human endeavour has a nation’s currency gone from being the worst-performing currency on Earth, to becoming the undisputed best-performing banknote in the world, in the space of just four months.

How did they do it? Central to this is the National Security Adviser. Yes, his decisiveness against Binance sparked the recovery of the Naira from the price-gouging mafia that operated on that platform. But his clinical surgery on our economy goes beyond that.

The revocation of the licenses of 4173 allegedly shady Bureau de Changes, which has reduced speculation against the Naira, also the brainchild of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, played a significant role in first stabilising, then appreciating the Naira. Because, as my sources in the Central Bank of Nigeria told me, many commercial banks had cyclical relations with these Bureau de Changes, which was an avenue for economic sabotage against the Naira.

Now, with all eyes on Bureau de Changes, everybody is shaping up. What the Central Bank of Nigeria is now doing is procedural regulatory functions, which, coupled with what the National Security Agency had done, sanitised the system.

And then we just had Eid el Fitri, and contrary to expectations, the prices of foodstuffs did not go up throughout Ramadan and during Sallah. How was that achieved?

Because the Tinubu administration took the unique step of sending agents to the border to stop grains from leaving Nigeria, while simultaneously releasing 42,000 metric tonnes of grains from the Strategic Grain Reserves into the market. These grains were tracked by operatives domestically from silos to markets, and not just at the border, to prevent racketeering. But for the action at the border, the grains would have left the silos and ended up in Niger Republic, Chad and Cameroon. Others would have been hoarded in warehouses. And the result would have been artificial scarcity, just so the usual suspects could make their unusual money.

So, we saw financial and food security restored by proactive security measures. A reflection of the fact that National Security has extended from the nonsensical level of rehabilitating Boko Haram and romancing bandits under Buhari, to a much more intellectual level of preventing discontent amongst the citizenry by ensuring their economic viability.

And speaking of that, let me ask you this question. What do the bandit leaders, Ali Kachala, Boderi Isyaku, and Sani Dangote, have in common? The answer is that they have all been killed this year by the Tinubu regime in security operations organised by the National Security Adviser.

That is why you can now drive from Abuja to Kaduna without being kidnapped. Or am I lying? When was the last time you read, heard, or even imagined an abduction on that route? The Abuja-Kaduna trains are safe. The Kaduna airport is secure. We are gradually moving from the dystopia of hundreds of bandits riding with their motorcycles right on the tarmac of the Kaduna International Airport, to a utopia where they are being bombed by air, gunned down by land, and cordoned off in the forests.

Yes, there are still incidences of opportunistic kidnappings and abductions here and there, which my party and I will use against Tinubu if they continue until 2027. We also know that a high incidence of these crimes are self-organised by unpatriotic Nigerians to extort money from their families.

But for now, I must admit that the government has dramatically improved on what it inherited from the Buhari administration.

As this administration is on the cusp of marking its first anniversary in office, we seem to have moved from eight wasteful years of Buhari to at least one tasteful year of Tinubu.

The Naira is now the world’s best-performing currency, according to Goldman Sachs.

In the Northwest, bandits are now being kidnapped themselves by our military and are being tried.

Every weekday is now a working day in the Southeast.

Boko Haram is now reduced as a threat in the Northeast.

The coastal highway is becoming a reality, and the Abuja metro is now ready for commissioning.

 

Fuel importation had reduced by more than 50%.

The Dangote and Port Harcourt Refineries are crashing the price of diesel.

The Federal Government has negotiated direct Lagos-London flights for Air Peace.

 

Our GDP is now grieving at 3.4%

Passport shortages are now a thing of the past, as Nigerians now get their passports speedily and with ease.

Wage support of ₦35,000 is being paid to all federal employees

 

And Nigeria has a trade surplus

Say what you will about Tinubu, but you cannot deny the fact that the President is gradually making us feel proud to be Nigerians again. I repeat that If God spares my life, my party and I will challenge him in 2027. Until then, I will commend him when he does well. And for now, he is doing well.

Omokri is a gospeller, deep thinker. #TableShaker. Ruffler of the Feathers of Obidents. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Hodophile. Hollywood Magazine Humanitarian of the Year, 2019. Business Insider Influencer of the Year 2022.

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