Nigerians should be patient with Tinubu’

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications in the Office of The Vice President, Stanley Nkwocha, in this interview with BOLAJI OGUNDELE, speaks on the activities of the administration, the economy and other issues. Excerpts

It has been about six months since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appointed you as his Senior Special Assistant, Media and Communications, (Office of The Vice President). How has it been?

First of all, I consider it a great honour to have been appointed by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as a presidential aide under the Renewed Hope administration.  The President and my boss, His Excellency, Vice President Kashim Shettima, have taken it upon themselves to set Nigeria on the path of economic prosperity and restore the nation to its past glory as the giant of Africa.  So, to answer your question directly, I would say it has been somewhat tasking on one hand, and of course, very educating. I was part of the campaigns and saw firsthand the process leading to the visions of the President. To now be part of the team saddled with the task of implementing those visions is a privilege you cannot pull off the shelf

I am sure you have seen for yourself that Vice President Shettima is justifying the trust Mr President has always had in him. He is a workaholic and once his mind is fixed on getting a task done, be rest assured that that task must be accomplished at all cost and in good time at that. There is no excuse whatsoever, especially when the business at hand is ensuring President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda is actualized and executed to the letter. Working with such a leader as your boss entails that you too must have to be on your toes, especially as the focus at hand is on the need to pull Nigeria out of the economic challenges created by years of misgovernance, misappropriation and ineptitude of some previous administrations.

The President’s quest for a prosperous Nigeria where the citizens can rebuild their confidence in government and its policies, I would confidently say, is non-negotiable.  By and large, however, the experience has been not only educating, but also inspiring, as I believe in the vision of the President. 

The present economic challenges facing the country under this administration are attributed to the announcement of fuel subsidy removal by President Bola Tinubu. Was that not a step in the wrong direction?

It will not be right to say that the economic challenges popped up under this administration. What people must realise is that what you term economic challenges precede the Tinubu administration. The immediate past administration spent a huge amount of funds tackling these challenges. For instance, it was the Buhari-led government that initiated the social investment programmes we have today.

The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation was created under the immediate past administration to address the plight of vulnerable Nigerians. Granted; fuel subsidy removal came with its peculiar challenges which will soon fizzle out in a couple of months, but it is unfair and amounts to killing a fly with a sledgehammer to situate the economic challenges under the renewed hope administration. I expected you to frame the question around the present economic challenges the Tinubu administration inherited and what it is doing to salvage the situation.

Now, on the removal of subsidy on petroleum products, I would be surprised if you try to feign ignorance of the economic wreck the subsidy regime turned Nigeria into. Before the Tinubu administration, the debate as to whether subsidy should go or remain had reached a crescendo, and the consensus had been that subsidy was a scam ab initio. Previous administrations had made frail attempts to end the subsidy but were unable to summon the political will to do so. Former President Jonathan tried it in 2012 but was overwhelmed by the backlash.