 Welcome back. It's time for our first hot topic. I want to take a look at 100 days and counting of hardship under President Tinnubu's administration. Are 100 days enough to judge the performance of an administration, or is it too early in the day to do so? On Wednesday, September 6, President Bola Tinnubu led administration marked 100 days in office, same for governors in 28 states across the country. What sort of foundations are being laid by the decisions, policies, and actions so far taken? How have they impacted the lives of Nigerians? Do the policies and actions so far taken inspire confidence that these governments know what they are doing and that they're going to get the country out of the woods? That's what I want to take a look at right now. We've been joined by Mr. Shakutong, the principal partner, Woodridge and Scott Consulting. Good morning to you, Mr. Shakutong. Good morning. Thanks for having me. Glad to have you join us. So, take us through your thoughts about this administration since President Bola Tinnubu was sworn in and all that's come out of it, especially with regards to the hardship that Nigerians have been faced with as a result of some of the policies that have been taken. Well, yes, it's been a mixed bag, to be honest. I think that the President, being the kind of person and personality that he is, seemed to have come out determined to appear different. So, for example, the subsidy is gone, the now-famous subsidy is gone statement. It's been said that that was not a part of the script in the speech that he read that day. And the question still remains, what was the proprietaryness of that statement? Was the need for that action subsidy was gone anyway? Wouldn't it have been better at that time to prepare the minds of Nigerians rather than throw them over the edge of the cliff, keep them in the bottom, throw them over the edge of the cliff, which is figuratively what the President did. So, we've seen a lot of that style in the President in these 100 days and you have to wonder whether that is what the type of leadership Nigeria needs now, bearing in mind that the country before he came on board wasn't there streets, were very serious, difficult waters. The ship was pretty much running aground, very severely off course. So, the President was coming on board at a time when what was desperately needed was clear, visionary leadership, leadership that can galvanize people behind the costs. Is that what we've seen so far? Well, the answer is out there for anybody to determine, but what is clear is that there has been a lot of action. So, generally, my thoughts are that there have been some positive, there are some positives that you can take from these first 100 days. There's been quite a number of negatives as well. In terms of policy, pronouncements, policy implementation, it's clear that there is a large volume of effort. A lot of policy pronouncements are being churned out almost on a daily basis, but one is a bit worried with regards to the coherence of all of that. It would almost seem as though a lot of these policies are coming from disparate angles, trying to achieve disparate objectives that does not appear to be a clear plan that some of these pronouncements and actions are targeted towards achieving. So, for me, it's been a mix-back, but on the overall, I think it's important that one should acknowledge that there's been a lot of action, and it's far better to fail while you're trying to do something than to do nothing at all. The situation of Nigeria as we have it today is such that there is a need for a lot of action. There's a need for a lot of planning, there's a need for a lot of coordination across the different aspects of the economy and the society as a whole, and you will not achieve all of that by simply just watching and doing nothing. So, the president has been very active, he's been very vocal, which is, I think, a good departure from what we've had in the recent past. We've heard from him personally a lot, and every time that he has spoken, he appeared to have been speaking off the cuff rather than reading lifeless speeches. So, for me, that would be the issue of how he has tried to engage with the Nigerian population and the Nigerian people is a positive. The fact that he's trying, obviously he knows that there is a need to take action is also a positive. The actions that he's taken, well, the jury is still out there, it's just three months. Was it a good idea to remove subsidy when he did? Well, we will see. Was it a good idea to unify the exchange rates at the time that it was done and in the manner it's been done? You know, the jury is still out there, it's been three months. But the morning, you know, a popular day, I would say, can tell you what the night will look like and looking at this morning, it's not very clear. I'm not particularly optimistic with regards to what direction we'll be going towards, but I hope and pray that some of the concerns that I have will not materialize and that I will be wrong. But in terms of policy formulation, there's a bit of a cause for concern. Well, his supporters will clearly tell you that three months is not enough time to worry that much, especially when you look at the fact that the former president nicknamed Babago Slo, and then we have someone who is from all that we can see is trying to prove a point. We have to give that he is trying to prove a point. And one can understand his sense in which he is trying to prove that point because I mean, just until Wednesday, he wasn't sure whether, at least that's what we believe, he wasn't sure whether his job was secured or not. And then you have a government that have repeatedly said that they inherited a very bad economy, very bad situation. But then it is the same party. What does that say of the APC and the fact that they want to continue being empowered, even though they have failed the country? Because during the former administration of President Buhari, they spent a good time, a very long time blaming the past administration of former president Abela Jonathan of the PDP for all that Nigerians were complaining about during his tenure. And so here we have the APC complaining about the APC. You want to talk about that? Well, you know, I mean, that's in the realm of politics. And as we all know, politicians can be seen sometimes to be from a different planet. They play by different set of rules. I mean, just what you said now is obviously logical. There is no reason why I belong to a party and that party produced a government and that government has been said to have failed woefully. And I come on board as a member of that party having written on the ticket of that same party. And then I say that the last government failed, give me a chance. I will do better, but it's the same party. So it's simple logic, but that logic may not necessarily apply in the minds of the average politician. They don't see that way. And you do have to recognize that in Nigeria, party politics is still very, it's in its infancy. A lot of the actions that you see governments take have very little to do with policy stances of their political parties. Typically the government wants the party is simply a vehicle to gain access to power. Once you get to power, you basically get to some of the party. The party becomes an inconvenience that you need to manage. It's politicians that wouldn't see the points you made because they don't think that way. But the average Nigerian ABC failed in the eight years of the Bari administration. You may argue that it wasn't a complete failure. And nothing ever is, there were positives. There were lines. Once you might describe as a period of darkness, the infrastructural efforts of the government are well documented. But it's a struggle to find those success stories. The party is a struggle to find them. So yes, that indeed it wasn't a time of spectacular success for the party. So now a new party, a new president has come aboard on the back of that same party. And this new president and his team are blaming some things on their own party. It's just the way politics works in Nigeria. There's nothing we can do about that. We just take it as strides and expect that they will go ahead and fix those things that they have identified. And indeed some of those things have been done. For example, the central bank of Nigeria's multiple official exchange rate policy was immediately taken away. Maybe it could have been handled differently. I don't think so. I think that was something that needed to be done. I think the matter of urgency was the dislocations that terrible policy was created in the foreign exchange market was extremely damaged. So this administration is already taking some corrective measures. But that's some of the failures of their predecessor. And I think that we have to focus on our experience with the politics of it to the politicians. We can't even play the ending because we don't think like that. So I will just say that regardless of what party the last government was formed from and regardless of which party this government is from, the important thing is that this administration fixes the very many challenges that currently face as a country that they have started. One with only hope that they find the approach as we proceed. Now we have a cabinet. Some of the members of that cabinet are people who we know to be people with very serious pedigree. In the areas that they have been put to manage, which is a very, very big thing. I say some, not all, but some very key positions have been filled with experts in those areas. Of course we have a lot of others that are people by persons who are absolutely nobler in which regards to what needs to be done in that area. The Ministry of Solid Minerals, such as for example, have been pressing on the stadilia like a group of TV's is a journalist. And from the pronouncements that he had made last week, it's clear that perhaps he needs to listen a bit more to the technocrats that work for him before he comes to the public to make announcements. There are quite a number of other examples like that, but we do have some good heads and many positions that they are trained to manage. One can only hope that that will result in some positive action for the country. You know, last night I was watching CNN and listening to the US President Joe Biden making some speech at the 9-11 Remembrance Ceremony. Part of the things he said, which I want to quote a bit, country above party, country above politics, you know, end of quote. And that's what I wish that Nigerians would begin to also adopt country, Nigeria above politics, Nigeria above party. And I want to take a look at some of the headlines on some of the national dailies that we read out this morning with our analysts and see if you think that some of the, you know, I had asked if some of the decisions taken, some of the policies and actions inspire any kind of confidence that this government can take Nigeria out of the woods. So look at on the punch newspaper, I have Tinibu Special Investigator for CBN Auditorial Report. So this special investigator that the President has put in place to kind of clean this table, some would say yes, this is something in the right direction. This is a good move in the right direction. Obviously he's going to not just take a look at, you know, he's not going to beam the searchlight on the CBN alone. He's going to go to NNPC hopefully and some other sectors and see just how much dirt can be cleaned up from that. And then you talk about the multiple deals that the President struck with Germany, Korea and India captured on the front page of the nation newspaper. Not forgetting the visit he paid yesterday to the UAE and how that diplomatic row has been resolved. Do you not see some of the actions that President Tinibu has taken so far inspiring confidence that he may indeed know what he's doing. And at the end of these four years in office because whether we like it or not, he is the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Whether he'll be able to take Nigeria out of the woods. Look at that. There are two ways to approach this type of situation. You can take what you have currently and wait against your current situation. Wait against your current experience or your immediate past experience. Or you can wait against the norm, what you would expect to see based on how things are done, generally speaking. Whether you want to say how things are done globally, you know, how things are brought to the table. So you have those two options. If you decide to look at things and compare to where you're coming from, how things have been. Then, you know, it's possible to say, wow, this is fantastic because the bar has set very low. Prior to now, high expectations of government, government action, the conduct of a precedent seem to have taken a serious look at it in the last eight years. And therefore, the way, you know, your current experience against that, you will be tempted to say this is very good. What we've seen so far in these past 100 days has been, in fact, fantastic. You know, because there's a clear departure from the past. However, you know, for me as a person, I do not. I don't set the bar low. I don't set the bar against my current experience. I set the bar against what should be. I set the bar against how... Global standards. Global standards. Global standards. People that have excelled in the area that I'm talking about. I set the bar against how they do things. So if you set the bar against global standards, then you will find that we are still very far off. For example, the central bank of Nigeria is our... It's the prime monetary policy organ of any government anywhere in the world. The actions and pronouncements of the central bank and its governor have a significant impact on the direction that the economy will take at any point in time. It will have a significant bearing on the investment attitude of the world, of the global economy towards that country. Therefore, your actions with regards to the central bank must be circumspect. The central bank cannot be dragged into the arena of politics. The central bank's activities cannot be dragged into the public domain as a part of a circus. A circus to make our sport political points. If there's a need for a cleanup in the central bank of Nigeria, then clean it up. But don't make a public circus of it. And I think that perhaps that's what we're seeing now. The former central bank governor has been suspended for all sorts of allegations. There's only some that made absolutely no sense. The charges that he was initially taken to court for were dropped. A new set of charges were brought up, which raises the question what exactly did he do? Was it the first set of things or was it the second set of things which would suggest perhaps there's a political undertone to the entire thing? And then a public investigator has been appointed. The public investigator on himself has a lot of controversies surrounding his exit from the FRN under the last administration, which then caused a question. If you must come to equity, you have to come with demands. So what exactly is our objective with this action of the CDN? How does this in any way inspire confidence of the investing public? Would it be seen by the investing public and the international community as all the country's cleaning itself up? Or would they take a more negative perspective and say, this place is too petty, I'm not coming here? So that's just an example of some of the things that are happening that I think we should not have based on global standards. The way that we've gone about appointing our ministers, the way that we have gone about betting them at the Senate hearings without having assigned a portfolio to them, the question stands so that the betting process can be thorough. It's definitely far short of global standards. So people look at things from that perspective. But generally speaking, I think whichever way you look at it, we definitely will have a better experience than what we had in the last eight years. Whether that better experience will take us out of the wounds and will be back to us in Nigeria that we all hope to see in the next four years is a question that may be difficult to answer at this time. For the morning, you know, telling what the night will look like, the morning needs to be better. Indeed. And global standards should be the target. I totally agree with you on that. Thank you so much for your time. Mr. Shakwito. Thanks for having me. Mr. Shakwito, principal partner Woodridge and Scott Consulting has been my guest on the first hot topic. Stay with us. We'll be right back with the second hot topic.