The Traffic

The Making of an Infinite Vote of Confidence. 
By Sunday Dare 

At the All Progressives Congress, APC’s National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting held at the Blantyre Street headquarters of the party on Wednesday, the seminal contributions from party leaders, governors and NEC members ruled the day. Present was President Bola Tinubu, the National Leader of the Party. It was a full cast. 

Beyond party politics, Nigeria took center stage. National issues and the current positive trajectory of the reforms under the Bola Tinubu administration easily became the day's topic. Speaker after speaker spoke unscripted yet with facts and eloquence.  APC leadership in full parade with President Tinubu leading the charge, was caught in a moment of testimony and confession draped in the colors of patriotic zeal and desire to see a stronger and better Nigeria. 

The message that echoed across the NEC meeting and across to Nigerians was the fact that Nigeria was gradually turning the curve. The Tinubu Reforms are working, and the gradual transformation of the Nigerian economy is taking shape. Speaker after speaker rolled out veritable data and clear pointers that the headwinds were clearing for Nigeria to move forward. 

From Gov. Dapo Abiodun to Gov. Hope to Senator Adams Oshiomole, the analytic elucidation of the specifics of the President’s performance and the strong emerging positive signs was very strong. They spoke to many things, all made possible by the President’s boldness in taking tough decisions with conviction.  It was a cascade. The Floating of the naira at first thought to be unwise now proves a wide and timely decision as the naira has strengthened against the dollar, recovering from N1,890 to N1,470.
 
The subsidy removal, which signalled the oil sector reforms, has reduced the pressure on the demand for forex, reduced petrol imports and given birth to a local refining capacity of petrol never witnessed before. We are seeing petrol prices dropping slowly but steadily. The unleashing of market forces and the willing seller and willing buyer principle now fully in play is opening up the economy. 

And there is more. Foreign reserves have gone up - close to $40 billion. Gross Domestic Product, GDP in the 4th quarter of 2024 is again up to 3.84. Exports volume is up with a N16 billion naira surplus as of January 2024. Oil production is climbing up to 1.7MB. The student loan program, NELFUND, is working helping many of our young ones afford their education. Credit Corp Scheme is purchasing new cars and access to credit easy for thousands of civil servants. Foreign Direct Investment, FDI is on the rise. Nigeria is turning out to be one of Africa’s strongest economies. 

By the time the microphone got to the Rt. Honourable Speaker, the atmosphere was already saturated with applause, claps, and large doses of positive indicators and data that the Tinubu reforms were yielding fruits, and Nigerians were beginning to feel the relieving impact.  Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, who had a prepared speech, delivered what came close to a PhD seminar paper on Tinubunomics and how to lead in troubled times. 

He reeled our facts. Nigeria’s GDP rose from 2.5 per cent to 3.8 per cent under President Tinubu. The improving performance of key sectors under President Tinubu was highlighted. He dwelt on security, praising Mr. President for realising that without security, everything else would not function. Security has improved with well over 30 per cent reduction in violent crimes and insecurity across the nation. 

When the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio took over, he simply endorsed all that the Speaker said and added his own icing, an advice  to the opposition to continue in their disarray.  Converts confessed. Doubters became believers, and many hitherto in the dark saw the light at the NEC meeting. But perhaps the most important aspect of all of these was the Vote of Confidence moved by the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, Governor Hope Uzodinma, who, before the vote, took his time to slice through the achievements of President Tinubu. He gave a well-calibrated rendition with an intellectual depth. The script he delivered was tight and well-written and clearly justified the Vote of Confidence. Before he spoke, the Governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun spoke. He urged the Chairman of the Progressive Governors forum to move the Vote of Confidence but not without delivering his own eloquent assessment of President Bola Tinubu’s stewardship. It was a vintage delivery loaded with facts about the direction the country is headed. The right direction.  Perhaps, the most engaging was the mea culpa delivered by Mr. President himself. The best closer. I offer you Mr. President’s words at the NEC:

“I am happy with your vote of confidence, and I accept it. The vote is a challenge to do more work; we will vigorously pursue our sovereignty in food security, investment and development. I am happy with food prices coming down, especially as Ramadan approaches. The sun is high, and the sky is bright outside. While the rest of the world unravels, we see growth in Nigeria. We are seeing a gradual return to stability. We are seeing improvements. I thank you, governors. I'm grateful to all Nigerians for the electoral successes recorded from one state to the other. Governors, you have embraced these changes, and I thank the leadership of our party. I also thank members of the National Assembly for expeditiously considering the budget.

“We can only build the party on a progressive platform to deliver good service to Nigerians. Though the journey has been very challenging for us as a ruling party, given the big task we have at hand and the expectations from Nigerians, We can sufficiently submit that we have collectively risen to the occasion and challenges."