Professor Anthony Kila, a member of The Patriots, a group of eminent Nigerians, is a renowned political economist and Professor of Strategy and Development. In this interview, the Director General, Commonwealth Institute of Advanced Professional Studies, takes a look at President Bola Tinubu’s two years in office, concluding that the current administration has good intentions but is poor on governance and policies, among other issues. CHIBUIKE CHUKWU brings the excerpts.
Let’s start with President Tinubu’s second anniversary. How has life been for you under this administration since he took power? How have Nigerians fared in these past two years?
Well, I think it’s been normal for me. But, you know, beyond my personal life, I think I make it my duty to also study numbers and to see how all the cities in our dwelling and to compare Nigeria and the rest of the world. And, you know, I study governance and I see. So it’s not even a personal thing. I would like to stay on an objective level and look at it to say, so far, I’m not particularly impressed with the first 24 months of the Tinubu administration.
Where do you hinge your unimpressed disposition towards the administration? What’s your source of not being impressed? What are the major things for you that make you unimpressed with the first 24 months?
Number one is that generally speaking, if you have a four-year contract and at half time, one should be able to draw a clear conclusion on where you are going. So far, that is not the case. But let’s put it this way. The way you measure a government is really by three major pillars. Number one is what they met there. You juxtapose what they’re doing with what they met. Then you compare the same government with expectations and promises that they made. Then you also judge the process in which they’re doing whatever they’re doing, good or bad. So in terms of what they met, the government has not really outperformed the one out there. There are people saying they missed the government that left, and it must be said that that is a very bad thing to feel because I personally felt that the last government was a terrible government. So the idea that you can even compare a new one to it is not a good place to be. The other side is the expectation and promises. The candidate campaigned and went to elections and became president, promising a better Nigeria, renewed hope, which was translated in the street as lower prices of food, higher employment, safer country, and a better life generally. That is not the case. I know some achievements though. I’m happy that we’ve repaid the IMF loan. I’m happy that the foreign reserve is higher. But if you as economists go to the street and you’re checking the price index and you’re judging the index of living and the perception of people, what you hear is hunger, unemployment, not enough money, high cost of housing, electricity, petrol, food, and so on. We’re in a situation now where the average salary is lower than the price of a bag of rice. That is not a great thing. In terms of that, it’s not great. I also feel that the model of governance is not a good one because from the onset there were some low-hanging fruits that were made. This president missed the opportunity of creating a legacy, for example, which is a very simple thing. To be the president that would nominate his minister faster than the other, though not required by the constitution. He had the opportunity and missed it of creating ministers with portfolios, of nominating them with portfolios. And then when they were nominated, people were talking about too many ministers. I said, okay, let’s see what they can do. If you have over 40 ministers and each one of them has done 40 projects by now, this is what we can do. The cost of living has not gone down. Employment is not growing. And that tells you it’s not good. In terms of the way we’re governing as well, I’m not sure anybody is picking up on best practice as a way to ask how the government communicates, how it shows empathy. Appointments are disputed. It’s not very impressive if we want the country to improve. I say this because I’m not a partisan politician. I’m just a concerned citizen, perhaps more informed than some citizens, who look at this thing and I keep shaking my head. I don’t want the head to break as I keep shaking it all the time. So that is where we are in terms of that. There are some good things I see. I’ve talked about the IMF loan. I’ve also talked about the creation of the consumer credit initiative. I like the idea that our foreign reserves are increasing. But overall, and this must be said, overall I think this government is very high on intention, rather high on politics, and sadly low on governance. However people speaking for the government can point to some inroads it has made like the minimum wage, the over $8 billion in new oil and gas investment, four new landmark tax bills, the five new regional development commissions, over $800 million realised in processing investments in solid minerals in 2024, and over 13,500 terrorists eliminated. The government says these are indications for further accomplishments.
Are you expecting timelines for these outcomes, or are you still doubting that these intentions or interventions are far cry from what is being done?
You know, that is their own narrative. But, you see, I always say something. May we not find ourselves in a situation where our efforts need to be explained. If you do it right, for instance there is 24 hours electricity, you don’t need to say it. People are seeing and saying it. If the roads are good, you don’t need to say, I’m spending on roads. People will tell you that the roads are now good. So the vantage increase in minimum wage is a political move, but it is a bad economic move. Achievements should not be in increasing minimum wage. Achievements should be making the wage that we have to buy more. If you say you are treating a bad illness and we need to be patient, at some point you need to have announced that situations are bad when they are situations. Therefore, we are going to take drastic measures, austerity measures, and those austerity measures will begin with the government. That is what is missing here. Look, I truly believe that this government has good intentions, but I criticise their method and I condemn their policies. That is the whole point. I don’t doubt their intention. I don’t believe they are evil people who want to destroy Nigeria. I just think they are not going about it the right way. If you really want to help people, it is neither by increasing their wages, nor giving them palliatives, which this government tends to be going down in history for a government of palliatives. By the way, palliative is a terrible word. Palliative is what you give to people who are about to die. My view is that what you need is to make the naira stronger and the way to do it is to increase production. You need to find a way to crash the prices of food, energy and other things, not give money to people to chase items that are not enough.
JAMB questions. And then perhaps you should have paid your tax for two years before you’re allowed to vote. And let me add that tax payment should not be done once. Let us say if you want to vote in 2027, you need to have been paying your taxes in 2025. So that way, the people who are going to vote, the people who ultimately are supposed to decide who gets into power, will be very informed and invested in the electoral and political process.
Is there anywhere such is practised for voting eligibility?
Well, it has been done in the past, but please allow me… I hate to come across as arrogant, but what I say, whether it’s been done anywhere else, does not matter. I have taught in over seven universities across the world, and my views are universal. So if I say something, it is wrong to ask me if it’s been done elsewhere. I can teach anybody in the world how to do this kind of thing. And I hate to come across pompous, but the whole idea of being a theorist is that you can bring forward ideas that can be adopted because it makes sense, not because we wait to copy others. Yes, it has been done in the past, but that is not even the issue. The issue is that we look at our country, we look at the present. Have you seen some of the people voting? I have watched AIT and other stations covering the electoral process. Have you seen the queue of the people who are deciding, who are employing through their vote, the men and women that will decide if we go to war or not, if we increase tax or not, if we remove subsidies or not. The men and women who employ through their vote the nominations of who is heading our army and our police? Very complicated issues. And we give it to people who have no stake, who have no interest, who can be bought with the amount of cooking a pot of soup. I think those who love Nigeria and have the clarity of mind and courage of a voice should rethink this thing seriously.