You people really think Nigerians are dumb? ๐
This is a beautifully written attempt to package hardship as necessary reform. Nobody is saying Nigeria didnโt have structural problems or that reforms werenโt needed. The question is who is bearing the cost, and what have Nigerians actually received in return?
You canโt keep telling people to endure rising food prices, transport fares, electricity costs and a collapsing standard of living while asking them to trust some better future that never seems to arrive.
And please, spare us the states now have more money argument. More money going to governors does not automatically mean better governance, and it certainly doesnโt erase the federal governmentโs responsibility for the consequences of its policies.
You can support Tinubu if you want. Thatโs your right. But addressing peopleโs suffering in sophisticated economic language doesnโt make the suffering any less real.
TUNUBU MUST GO.
I want to state this plainly: I support Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Not because I think he is perfect. He isnโt. Not because I dismiss the pain, anger or legitimate grievances of Nigerians who oppose him. I donโt.
I support him because, after looking at the problems Nigeria has struggled with for decades, the reforms being attempted, their immediate costs and their potential long-term consequences, I believe the direction is worth supporting.
I have thought deeply about this, and I want to explain why.
First, I believe we have to be honest about the structural problems Nigeria inherited and has repeatedly postponed confronting.
For years, we subsidised fuel, maintained multiple exchange rates, accumulated fiscal pressures and built an economy heavily dependent on oil revenues. These policies had their reasons, and they benefited people in different ways, but I do not believe they were sustainable indefinitely.
That is why I support the broad direction of subsidy removal and the foreign exchange reforms.
But supporting a reform does not mean pretending its consequences donโt matter.
I understand the Nigerian who is angry because transport has become more expensive. I understand the family struggling with food prices. I understand the worker whose salary has not increased at the same pace as the cost of living.
Their pain is real.
The objective of reform cannot simply be to tell Nigerians to endure hardship because โthe economy is improving.โ
The objective has to be to build an economy where Nigerians eventually experience lower costs because we are producing more, refining more of our crude locally, expanding gas and alternative energy, improving competition, reducing transportation costs, creating jobs and increasing incomes.
That is why, for me, the ultimate goal isnโt merely cheap petrol.
It is cheap energy, cheaper transportation, productive businesses and rising incomes.
I donโt support a permanent fuel subsidy regime because I donโt believe government should indefinitely spend scarce public resources keeping an artificially cheap product cheap while the productive capacity of the economy remains weak.
I would rather see Nigeria build an energy system capable of making fuel cheaper because it is cheaper to produce and distribute, not because government is perpetually paying the difference.
There is also another part of this conversation that deserves attention: the states.
Nigeria is not governed from Abuja alone. Governors are responsible for enormous areas of public service delivery, and their ability to provide roads, schools, hospitals, water and other infrastructure depends heavily on the resources available to them.
The reforms have expanded the fiscal space available to subnational governments.
I have seen this from my own state, Kano.
I support Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, and I believe the increased resources available to states have created an environment in which governors can do more.
Kanoโs current budget, for example, places significant emphasis on capital expenditure, with major commitments to education, healthcare and infrastructure.
That does not mean Abuja deserves credit for everything happening in Kano. The governor and his administration must still be judged on how intelligently, transparently and effectively those resources are deployed.
But it would equally be dishonest to discuss state-level performance without acknowledging the fiscal environment created by federal reforms.
โฆโฆโฆ continuation ๐๐ฝ