Vice President Kashim Shettima says President Bola Tinubu is not running Nigeria from a distance or behind closed doors but is actively engaging the public and responding to national concerns with empathy.
Speaking at a two-day interactive session on Government–Citizens Engagement in Abuja, organized by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, Shettima, represented by the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President (Office of the Vice President), Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, said Tinubu’s approach to governance avoids isolation and elitism.
According to Shettima, “This administration is neither crafting policy in solitude nor assuming that technocracy alone delivers results.”
He said Tinubu’s government has made it a priority to consult citizens and stakeholders on key policy decisions. “We are convening conversations and institutionalising listening,” the Vice President said.
Shettima pointed to tax reforms, education policy, and responses to the fuel subsidy removal as examples of the administration’s attempt to listen before acting.
He noted that on student loans, the government repealed and reenacted the initial Access to Higher Education Act following public criticism, removing income ceilings and guarantor requirements.
“We believe no student should be disqualified for being born on the wrong side of poverty,” he said.
On tax reforms, Shettima said a Presidential Tax and Fiscal Reform Committee was set up to involve various stakeholders.
“When objections arose from governors and citizens alike, the President did not dismiss them. He welcomed their candour and ensured tax bills passed through public hearings,” he said.
He added that some inherited levies, such as the 10% tax on single-use plastics and the telecom tax, were suspended after public pushback.
Addressing the controversial removal of fuel subsidy, the Vice President admitted it brought hardship but said the government tried to cushion the effects.
“We met with labour unions not with threats, but with empathy. We offered palliative packages, increased wages, waived diesel taxes, and introduced alternatives like CNG buses to cushion transport costs. We were not merely reacting. We were responding,” he said.
He said this same pattern of listening and adjusting has shaped other policy areas.
“Governance is not a theatre of perfection but a process of correction,” Shettima said. “A government that listens is a government that learns. And a government that learns is a government that leads.”
He also commended the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation for keeping the legacy of the late Northern Premier alive, calling it “a torch of civic dialogue that must never be extinguished.”
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