by Uchechukwu Okoroafor, Abuja
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration is the most propagandist government in the history of Nigeria.
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Having gotten to power through propaganda, they have turned that communication strategy to a leadership model. They have turned propaganda to an act of governance. And now they have become an embarrassment to 200million Nigerians who they purport to deceive, as they have been severally caught in their lie.
A recent event in Saudi Arabia will suffice. Recall that Tinubu was in Saudi Arabia recently to attend the World Economic Forum Special Meeting. It was an opportunity to concoct achievements that never happened at the event.
The Nigerian media had reported that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s foreign investment drive in the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh yielded $600 million investments. Continuing the report said Nigeria has secured a $600 million investment from a Danish shipping and logistics firm AP Moller-Maersk, a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Ajuri Ngelale, said.
Ngelale said the investments were attracted from Denmark for the expansion of ports infrastructure to accommodate more container shipping services. He said the Federal Government would protect the investment and ensure ease of doing business. He added that the $600 million investments, which were offered by the Danish shipping and logistics company, A.P Moller-Maersk, would complement the $1 billion being invested by the Federal Government on the seaport reconstruction in the eastern and western flanks of the country. He said that the Chairman of A.P Moller-Maersk, Mr. Robert Maersk Uggla, unfolded the investment plan during a meeting with President Tinubu on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy for Development in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Unfortunately for the government they are in power in the Twenty First Century when information moves at the speed of light. They were caught in their lie. Maersk, the Danish shipping giant, refuted the claims made by the Nigerian President Bola Tinubu regarding a purported $600 million investment to enhance the country’s port infrastructure. It was a big embarrassment to our country and shameful.
Maersk had countered the assertions, saying, “No such agreement is in place, and no deals have been signed,” a company spokesperson told Lloyd’s List, a leading online maritime publication. While confirming the meeting, Maersk emphasised that it was part of routine discussions with Nigerian officials and did not result in any new investment commitments. “Maersk has been present in Nigeria for 35 years and, as a global provider of logistics services, we remain committed to developing opportunities for growth for people, the port sector, and businesses locally,” the company stated.
As pointed out earlier, this is not the first time the Tinubu administration is embarrassing Nigeria before the international community.
In September 2023, the Tinubu administration lied that the United Arab Emirates had lifted its months-long visa ban on Nigerians, saying consequently, Etihad and Emirates Airlines will resume flight operations in Nigeria “immediately.”
“President Bola Tinubu and President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on Monday in Abu Dhabi, have finalised a historic agreement, which has resulted in the immediate cessation of the visa ban placed on Nigerian travelers.
“Furthermore, by this historic agreement, both Etihad Airlines and Emirates Airlines are to immediately resume flight schedules into and out of Nigeria, without any further delay,” the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, had claimed in a statement.
In the statement titled “President Tinubu secures landmark deal with United Arab Emirates across sectors; visa ban on Nigerian travellers is lifted immediately,” he had claimed that this followed talks between Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu and his Emirate counterpart, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. “It also comes nearly three weeks after the President expressed his willingness to personally intervene to end the nearly one-year ban.”
It was another fat lie. Till date the UAE visa ban against Nigeria remains and Etihad and Emirates Airlines have not resumed operations in Nigeria, six months after Ngelale claimed that the visa ban was lifted ‘immediately’ as well as Emirates flight resumption to Nigeria.
Three months later, precisely in November, 2023, the administration again claimed that the Government of Saudi Arabia had pledged to invest in the revamping of Nigeria’s refineries, as well as provide financial support to sustain the government’s foreign exchange reforms. It said the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, made these pledges at the bilateral meeting with President Bola Tinubu on the sidelines of the Saudi-Africa Summit in Riyadh.
According to a statement by the minister of information, Mohammed Idris, at the time, Saudi Arabia promised to support the Central Bank of Nigeria’s ongoing reforms of Nigeria’s foreign exchange regime with the Saudi Government making available a substantial deposit of foreign exchange to boost Nigeria’s forex liquidity.
Several months after Saudi Arabia has not brought the ‘substantial’ deposit of dollars to bolster the dwindling fortune of the Naira and there are no indications that Saudi Arabia is interested in revamping Nigeria’s refineries.
The government should stop further embarrassment of the nation in its desperate bid to be seen to be proactive and attracting investment into the country, any time the president travels, perhaps to justify the humongous estacode paid to the president and his entourage by the taxpayers.
The government should provide the enabling environment for businesses such as tackling insecurity, improving on power supply, reduction of corruption in governance and addressing the high cost of doing business in Nigeria. When the enabling environment is there foreign direct investment will grow naturally and with it the Nigerian economy.
The first major step, though, should be to stop all these propaganda and face reality. It has now become an embarrassment to Nigerians and Africans in general.