Text of an address by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the memorial lecture for Dr Bala Usman in Kaduna on 18th December 2015. In the speech, he made several suggestions on how the Buhari administration can safely take Nigeria through a very serious recession, occasioned by falling oil prices. Tinubu tells Buhari to remove the subsidy on fuel consumption which has so far gulped N1trillion this year. 

Tinubu also suggests that Nigeria stop linking Naira spending with petro-dollar earned.

Bola Tinubu

Here is the full speech

We gather today in deep respect and appreciation. This nation owes an unredeemable debt to DR. YUSUFU BALA USMAN. His love for Nigeria had no exception.

He cared for us all, the great and the lowly, the rich and the modest, the arrogant and the humble, those from the North, South, East and West. Moslem and Christian.

The beam of his keen intellect was only equalled by the glow of his humanity.

It has been a decade since the great teacher, researcher, thinker, writer, polemicist, nationalist and pan-Africanist left us to enter into eternity on September 24, 2005.

Yet, the light of his incandescent life continues to shine brightly, showing present and future generations the path to personal and national greatness.

This unique and distinguished institution, the Centre for Democratic Development, Research and Training (CEDDERT) founded by Dr. Bala Usman is an enduring testament to his rare spirit and vision.

I commend the management and staff of CEDDERT for holding aloft Bala Usman’s banner of commitment to truth, equity, human nobility and justice.

I thank the organisers of this event for considering me worthy to deliver this keynote address. It is an unalloyed honour.

Let me say that Dr. Bala Usman was no stranger to me.

I recall with nostalgia how hard he worked and how we joined hands in common purpose to help achieve the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola’s emphatic victory in the historic June 12, 1993, Presidential election.

So committed was Bala Usman to democratic restoration in Nigeria that he translated Chief Abiola’s manifesto, ‘Farewell to Poverty”, into Fulfude.

Reflecting upon that momentous election which might have changed the course of our history had it been allowed to hold, I must sound a caution for our times.

Bala Usman would have been pleased by the result of this year’s contest. It presents a chance for Nigeria to renew its march toward progress based on the ideals Usman espoused.

This change requires more than a change in policies; it requires a change in politics; it requires a change of heart.

While we have put forth a new government, too many of us who should be allied in changing the prospects of this nation have failed to put forth a new politics.

They remain mired in the broken ways of yesterday, placing every conceivable personal interest above the national concern.