The official campaign slogan for the Bola Tinubu/ Kashim Shettima campaign, in the build up to the 2023 presidential elections, was ‘Renewed Hope.’ Apart from the emilokan statement by the then presidential aspirant to assert that it was his turn to be president of Nigeria, the Renewed Hope became the most popular catch-phrase then. After Tinubu won the election and assumed office as president on May 29, 2023, the slogan, rather than wane, assumed a life of its own as the wife of the president, Senator Remi Tinubu, labelled her pet project using the theme of the campaign slogan. As Nigerians were beginning to understand where and when to draw the line between the campaign slogan and the First Lady’s pet project, various initiatives and programmes of the federal government also borrowed from the nomenclature with various projects labelled as Renewed Hope with various sub themes.
Checks by our correspondents revealed that the projects so labelled include those under various government agencies which enjoy funding and are backed by the government. The obfuscations have led to insinuations that the retention of the slogan could be deliberate to associate projects done by the government as being in line with earlier campaign promises. Analysts have raised concerns over how the line between the government funded projects and personal interventions have become blurry.
An analyst, who preferred not to be named, said it is important the government makes it clear which ones are being sponsored through the interventions by First Lady and others with the ones that are normal projects covered by the federal government’s budget. A renowned political scientist, Prof Jibrin Ibrahim, recalled that originally, the Renewed Hope agenda was part of the campaign programme of Tinubu and it was part of what was used in developing the manifesto for his election. “What happened subsequently was that when they formed government and the First Lady started this project, it was more like a personal project of the First Lady.
And what disturbed me was that there was no information on where the money for the project was coming from. Is it government money or is it her personal money? Then as you’ve observed in recent years, it’s become somehow merged with government projects.
“You have projects all over the country that are based on this Renewed Hope. And the problem with what’s going on is that we still don’t have any information on who is funding it. Because the important thing is that you have to separate private projects from public projects,” he stated.
A source familiar with the federal government’s ‘Renewed Hope’ projects said the name is being used because it forms the administration’s flagship project, noting its role in the current political landscape. “Honestly, this is the administration’s flagship project, and I see nothing wrong with it being used for a campaign. It is the norm for those in power to showcase their achievements through such projects,” the source said.
He said the project was named Renewed Hope because it is the administration’s campaign initiative to reflect all the developmental project of the present administration. There are also concerns that fully funded government projects are being used to campaign for President Tinubu who is expected to run for a second term. Investigations by our correspondent have shown that apart from First Lady’s Renewed Hope Initiative, so far, there are the Renewed Hope Agenda; Renewed Hope Ward Development Programme; the Renewed Hope Ambassadors and Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund.
There’s also the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) which the president said should be absorbed into the new Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund (RHIDF) and the 2026 -2030 Renewed Hope National Development Plan. The new Renewed Hope Ambassadors is led by Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, while the Minister of Budget and National Economic Planning, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, handles the Renewed Hope Ward Development Programme which he described as a core part of the Tinubu administration’s drive to build a $1 trillion economy and ensure no Nigerian is left behind by 2030.
He said the Renewed Hope Ward Development initiative involves economic mapping of all 8,809 political wards across the country to identify unique local opportunities for job creation, investment, and community development. Weekend Trust was informed that the Renewed Hope Projects are a Nigerian federal government housing initiative under the Renewed Hope Agenda, aiming to build 50,000 affordable housing units nationwide through Public-Private Partnerships. It is planning to build various house types with amenities like schools, clinics, and markets, with projects already underway in states like Abuja, Kano, Oyo, Katsina, Ebonyi, and Lagos and lower/medium-income housing in Abuja, Lagos, Katsina, Yobe; Gombe; Sokoto; Benue and Kano as well as, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Osun, Oyo, Benue, and Nasarawa