Former House of Representatives member Usman Bugaje has criticized President Bola Tinubu’s administration, calling it a tragedy in its first year.
During an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday evening, Bugaje claimed that Tinubu’s government has not only failed to solve any problems but has also created new ones.
“For citizens and the people who have been in government, clearly the last one year has been a tragedy. There is no one problem they have been able to solve. I cannot see any other than no clue. I gave them the sense. They are feeling the pressure on the faces of Nigerians and perhaps they are trying to see how they can assuage this anger because the people are angry,” Bugaje said.
Since Tinubu took office on May 29, 2023, Bugaje observed, “I have not seen one problem that they have solved. If anything, the policies they started with have created far more problems than they found, and in this one year, they are clearly groping in the dark.”
He continued, “This is the time for them to admit and seek help from those who know. Nigeria is full of people with the experience, with the expertise. They may not be in your party, they may not even be in politics but this is the way many countries have been able to get out of their problems. What we are going through is not new. Countries go through these from time to time but what do they do, they draw from their resources, their intellectual resources, their administrative resources, the people who have experiences. This country is full of them but they (leaders) lock themselves up and they are not delivering.”
Bugaje also lamented the lack of metrics to evaluate governance in Nigeria, stressing the need for scientific assessment of government performance.
“I feel uncomfortable discussing this without even defining what their metrics are. We as a nation should have by now developed metrics for evaluating governance. In the academic world, there are statistics. Every government should have come with a baseline, after one year, they would be able to say scientifically this is the production in terms of agriculture, what we found in 2023 and this last season, we have improved by number of these metric tonnes.”
He highlighted ongoing security issues, noting the recent kidnapping of 20 people in Gwarinpa, Abuja.
“If Abuja, with all the presence of the government, is not safe, this is a centre shock to many residents of Abuja. Other citizens in Sokoto, in Zamfara, in Benue, in Cross River, and wherever they are, are constantly being killed, being maimed, and displaced. We must be concerned.”
The former lawmaker dismissed the government’s rhetoric as empty and not addressing real issues.
“My point is, what I have heard so far is empty rhetoric that has not spoken to the problems on the ground. If you are talking about more money to the states, that is not your business. That is a revenue allocation formula. You are not doing a favour to anybody. You are simply implementing the revenue allocation formula. It is a law,” he said.
