By Magnus Onyibe
The event happened during the Great Depression when in a radio broadcast, Roosevelt gave hope to war weary and hunger stricken Americans by urging them to keep the faith as he was poised to pull them out of the menacing misery.
Information gleaned from the Voice of America, VoA website, sheds more light on the underpinning reasons for President Roosevelt’s decision to mark his first 100 days in office.
As the story goes: “Roosevelt set out to make significant and quick changes in economic and social policy, through both legislative and regulatory actions.“On taking office,he summoned the U.S. Congress to a three-month special session and,by the end of his first 100 days, had passed 76 new laws,mostly aimed at easing the effects of the Depression.”
Does the nascent presidency of Nigeria under the watch of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, although it is barely two (2) months or (60) days old,not echo the presidency of Franklin D.Roosevelt?
That is even if the number of laws passed so far in 60 days in Nigeria would by no means be up to 76 which is the unsurpassed record of laws passed under the watch of President Roosevelt in the first 100 day of his watch in the White House.
I would contend that it does,basically because President Tinubu’s 60 days reign in office based on the consequential decisions made so far with seismic effect on the polity have elicited reactions that can only be associated with an administration that must have been in power for at least a term of four (4) years.
And the assertion above is underscored by the fact that in this short space of time,a remarkable number of laws and executive orders have been churned out under President Tinubu’s watch in a manner that is reminiscent of how President Roosevelt, the war time president of the US that pulled that country (currently the leader of the free world and richest nation on planet globe) out of the infamous Great Depression of 1933.
In any case ,a four (4) year term is actually a total of 1,461 days,hence most goal-getter type of political office holders would often like to hit the ground running.
But more often than not,existential realities prevent them from achieving the speed with which they would have preferred to flesh out their plans to deliver on campaign promises.
In the case of Nigeria,the president or governor contends with the challenge of walking the tight rope of balancing ethnic,religious,gender and age factors.
Those are the ever present issues that could make or mar an administration, simply because it would willy-nilly be evaluated from the prism of the aforementioned biases.
That perhaps explains the delay in releasing the first batch of nominees for ministerial appointments by President Tinubu last Thursday 27 July which is barely 24 hours to the sixty days deadline provided in section 42 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
Although President Tinubu has just consummated only a mere 60 days of his tenure which is a tiny fraction of his four (4) years first term that is a total of 1,461 days,he has unprecedentedly made ‘bombshell’ decisions that have shaken Nigeria to the roots and impacted Nigerians to their bone marrows,albeit temporarily with harsh effects,even as the policies are generally believed to be laden with long term benefits.
And the socioeconomic circumstances prevailing at the time that president Roosevelt ruled the US (world war and the Great Depression) are not really dissimilar to the current situation in our country under President Tinubu’s watch,which can be likened to a war situation.
That assumption is based on the intractable malaise of internal schisms wracking Nigeria in the form of religious Insurgency,herdsmen and farmers conflicts in the northern axis; separatism/ secessionism crisis in the eastern flank and ritual killings of fellow human beings for Monet in the western region,all of which are currently making our country look like a sort of theatre of war.
As we are all well aware,the world in general is in a turmoil. The crisis situation that has gripped the world is owed not only to the global economic recession triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic which lasted from 2019 to 2020; but also arising from the ongoing Russia invasion of Ukraine which is exhibiting characteristics of Cold War political tensions,with the old world order being disrupted,particularly with respect to food supply.
Therefore,the entire globe is tottering on the brinks of another world war with the consequences associated with economic recession,perhaps of the dimension of the Great Depression of 1933 looming large.
So,the need to hurry up in steering the ship of state of Nigeria from the tempestuous waters in which it is currently sailing and being tossed around dangerously,is what informs this early stock taking after only 60 days of Tinubunomics,instead of waiting for the traditional 100 days to measure the progress.
From the foregoing narrative,it is clear that President Tinubu’s anxiousness to put our country on even keel aligns with the socioeconomic factors that motivated President Roosevelt in 1933 during the world war and Great Depression,to roll out a large number of acts of laws and executive orders (which has been unmatched till date) that enabled the US pull herself out of the depression much faster than anticipated.
The flurry of policy changes at dizzying speed being unfolded by President Tinubu since 29 May when he took the presidential oath of office,which reminds of how Roosevelt doggedly pursued reforms with remarkable gusto and gumption (67 laws in 100 days) is what is making a sixty (60) days old administration look like a government that has been around for four (4) years due to Tinubu’s bullishness in the introduction of reforms.
As such,it is a no brainer to posit that President Tinubu’s ascension into the presidency of Nigeria on 29 May 2023 which has clocked sixty (60) days mark has been tumultuous.
In fact,the six (6) scores number of days of Tinubunomics has been like a roller coaster for Nigerians who are just emerging from the rulership of the immediate past administration which did little,if anything in terms of policy reforms that could have led to any seismic change in Nigeria’s socioeconomic and political space for the eight(8) years that it held sway in Aso Rock Villa seat of presidential power.
Although former president Mohammadu Buhari(2015-2023) passed the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB which he signed into an act of law as Petroleum Industry Act,PIA in 2022; as Americans like to put it,he literally ‘kicked the can down the road’ by shifting the date for the implementation of the tough part of the law(end of petrol pump price subsidy) by six (6) months which fell squarely into the starting point of his successor-President Tinubu.
Magnus Onyibe,an entrepreneur, public policy analyst ,author,democracy advocate,development
