During his inauguration on Monday, the new president promised to put Africa’s largest economy back on track as the oil-rich country sinks into the doldrums.
Three months after his election, Bola Tinubu was officially sworn in on Monday, May 29, in Abuja to become the new president of Nigeria. A mandate that looks like an impossible mission as his country, the most populous in Africa with more than 215 million inhabitants, seems to be adrift on all fronts.
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At 71, Bola Tinubu, a veteran of local politics and a multimillionaire, will first have to overcome a handicap of legitimacy. He was wrongly elected. During the presidential election last February, nearly three quarters of voters abstained. Of the 93 million registered, he collected barely 9 million votes. Young people, the majority, voted for opposition candidates who denounced massive fraud and filed legal action. Facing the new president, whose health regularly raises questions, stands a dizzying mountain of problems and crises.
The security file is the most urgent for the new president. The country is plagued by violence. Not a day goes by without attacks from criminal groups, jihadists or separatists. Kidnappings, individual or mass, are commonplace. In the countryside, rivalries for agricultural land between farmers and herders often degenerate into deadly clashes. In the cities, gangs rule the roost. The police and security forces are completely overwhelmed. They are ill-equipped, understaffed, and moreover, regularly accused of violating human rights. During his campaign, Bola Tinubu promised to develop a robust and efficient security device. In any case, it is the essential prerequisite for hoping to tackle an economic and social situation that is spiraling out of control.
The paradox of a rich country
Nigeria is the largest oil producer on the African continent. A crude that it exports and which earns it billions of dollars, but for lack of refining infrastructure, it must import its fuel which it subsidizes. This poor energy management, coupled with endemic corruption, has led to an explosion of debt but also of poverty which affects nearly half of the population. In short, the urgency for Bola Tinubu is to replenish the coffers of the State and to revive the national economy, under penalty of having to face during his mandate the anger of the people, who are in survival mode. .
The new president, who is said to be more open to business than his predecessor, will have to move quickly. He has two months to form his government. The composition of the cabinet will be an opportunity to send a strong signal of its desire to redress Nigeria… or not!