In a sharp critique of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Independence Day speech, Professor Udenta O. Udenta, the founding National Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), described the address as a “mantra of hopelessness” that failed to inspire the Nigerian people.
Udenta said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, where he also said that those who participated in the drafting of the Independence Day speech should either be reprimanded or outrightly sacked.
Udenta said, “The President’s speech must soar, must be lofty in nature, must be compassionate, must address the critical challenges facing the people in broad spectrum, philosophical strokes. That speech is completely banal and pedestrian. It’s not something that somebody will sit down and say I’m inspired, in spite of the pain and the hurt in the land, I’m inspired by the speech of Mr President. He lifted my soul, he lifted my spirit, I feel like there’s a future for this country, there is hope. So, the mantra of hope is actually the mantra of hopelessness, because the speech itself did not inspire that depth of hope.”
He further criticised the speech for reiterating this administration’s ineffective policies as he said, “It must equally bring in to bear on the contemporary stage and admit that well, the policies he has unleashed for the past 16 months are not working, but what he did was to restate those policies that are not working and re-emphasise them, almost as if this government is tone deaf. No matter however you speak, however you contribute, no matter how much the media, public service advocates try to penetrate the opaqueness of the system they’ve erected around the president and presidency, the speech again rehashed what he has said before without bringing anything creative.”
“If you invoke the names of our founding fathers and their memory of struggle and say this is where we are from the gift they gave us, they will be embarrassed with that kind of speech the president rendered. And my take is that all those who participated in drafting it should either be reprimanded- verbally or in writing- or even be outrightly sacked. That speech didn’t do justice to the president or the image of the country,” he added.
Udenta expressed concern over the president’s decision to take annual leave in London, suggesting that Tinubu should prioritise the pressing issues facing Nigeria, stating, “I wish Mr President a good rest in London for part of his annual leave, but I would have hoped that he would have stayed back home this very moment, delay that annual leave. It’s not enough to say he’s going to look at his economic policies while resting in London, in the UK. He should have delayed that leave and concentrated on the clear and present danger facing the country.
He pointed out inaccuracies in the president’s claims regarding the status of banditry and terrorism in Nigeria as he said, “In that speech he talked about banditry and terrorism already being vanquished- that is not true. Eight years of Muhammadu Buhari presidency, Lai Mohammed and other ministers were talking about constructing defeat, strategic defeat and technical defeat of Boko Haram, but Boko Haram was still vibrant and alive and growing more in stature and spread in terms of geography.”
Highlighting the deterioration of Nigeria’s foreign policy during both the Buhari and Tinubu administrations, Udenta remarked, “From the 8 years of Buhari presidency, Nigeria’s foreign policy became incoherent, almost completely dissolved, to the degree that under the Bola Tinubu Presidency, ECOWAS unravelled for the first time in its history. Niger particularly, the loss of Niger from the ECOWAS was very crucial. Over a thousand kilometres in border with about five or six states in Nigeria. Thousands were pouring in in the past one year. That is why the Chief of Defence staff had to journey to Niger to plead with his counterpart. In essence, he can’t defeat Boko Haram or banditry when their borders are unmanned and unpoliced for one year.”
He went on to say, “President Bola Tinubu withdrew over 109 ambassadors over a year ago. No ambassadors have been deployed to Nigerian mission- fact check me on this matter. That means there is a strategic retreat from the foreign scene. Nigeria is already increasingly isolated, therefore, it cannot combat regional security challenges or combat terrorism or banditry unless you have your ambassadors on ground.”
Udenta also challenged the president’s claims regarding the country’s financial situation, asserting that the alleged payoff of 30 trillion naira in loans is misleading. He explained, “If you check a few of the items there, 30 trillion already completely paid off- they ways and means loan- that is not true… What they did is called securitisation, to securitise that loan. A federal government loan was now transformed into Nigeria’s sovereign debt. A debt that nobody borrowed on behalf of the name of the sub nationals and everybody in Nigeria now has a forty year tenure that everybody, including me and you, and our children and maybe grandchildren may be compelled to pay. The loan that National Assembly never knew when it was taken, never knew what it was done for, and all those involved have not even been criminally charged for it. So, the 30 trillion ways and means loans are still there. They just converted it in a nomenclature chain and valuation.”
He then emphasised the need for dialogue in order to strengthen Nigeria’s democracy as he said, “If we don’t have dialogue the way we are doing now, we cannot enrich or grow our democracy. The land is in peril, it’s in grave danger, and so we must talk. Only those who live in a bubble, those in government who live in a bubble, believe that all is well.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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