Fayemi: Tinubu means well for Nigeria — but good intentions aren’t enough

Kayode Fayemi, former governor of Ekiti state, says President Bola Tinubu has good intentions for Nigeria, but noted that they are not enough to guarantee success.

Fayemi spoke on Thursday when he appeared on Politics Today, a programme on Channels Television.

The ex-governor said the Tinubu administration needs to add an effective policy framework for the existing leadership acumen to ensure good governance.

Asked to speak truth to power, Fayemi said, “power knows the truth,” noting that power does not act the truth “because sometimes there are many mediating factors”.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done many good things; we all must acknowledge that. He’s been bold to take on some of the most difficult decisions that previous leaders have been reluctant to take on,” he added.

“The fallout of those decisions has caused us huge cost of living crisis. Fuel subsidy removal, convergence of FX window.

“However, he is well-meaning, but well-meaning is not enough in leadership; intentionality is critical to success.

“Whether you talk about student loans or other efforts at resisting insurgency, taming insecurity, tax policy reform, increase revenue into the federal coffers; clearly some elements are there but need to come together.

“This is where effective policy framework goes side by side with leadership acumen to get a change of narrative to the story. Maybe that’s the area where we need to do a lot more.”

The former governor also said the leaders of the country must apologise to Nigerians because they have not delivered on their promises to them.

“Clearly, we must apologise to the Nigerian people. We have not succeeded in achieving everything we promised the Nigerian people, but that was not just because we were incompetent but because there were other structural impediments that have made things more difficult for us,” he said.

“But clearly, we haven’t done enough to make life abundant for the Nigerian people, and for that, I clearly will not hesitate to apologise to the Nigerian people. We can do a lot more. An apology may give people good vibes or feelings, but that’s not what we really need.

“We need to get our acts together, all of us who consider ourselves leaders in that space, because if we don’t, the risk we run is higher than the return we get.”

On May 29, 2023, Tinubu announced the removal of subsidy on petrol — a development that immediately led to a spike in the price of the product, as well as goods and services.

As the policy began to take a toll on citizens’ survival, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced the unification of all segments of the foreign exchange (FX) markets – collapsing the FX windows into the investors and exporters (I&E) window.

The CBN policy, which grossly devalued the naira, stoked inflation to unbearable levels — further worsening the living condition of Nigerians as food, transportation, and other essential services became expensive.

In August 2024, Nigerians protested against “economic hardship” and what they described as “bad governance” — a demonstration that lasted for 10 days.