The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, has urged Nigerians to be patient with Tinubu’s economic reforms.
Atiku, who spoke with journalists at the National Mosque on Friday, said challenges aren’t peculiar to Nigeria alone.
The minister reiterated the commitment of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu towards transforming the Nigerian economy.
According to him, what’s happening in Nigeria also obtains in the developed countries such as the United Kingdom and the United Staes of America, urging Nigerians to stay hopeful of positive transformation.
Bagudu said, “Some of the things our country is going through are similar to what other countries in the world are also experiencing particularly the cost of living crisis.
“We have seen in the rich world, including the UK and US where people are struggling to pay mortgages. In fact people are losing their homes, people moving from their homes to the street, people choosing between feeding and eating and some of these challenges have also affected us.”
While acknowledging the challenges in the country, the minister argued that policies of the Tinubu-led administration have already yielding positive results.
He added, “Today we have innovative programmes, consumer credit funds, student loan funds, mortgage system, support for agriculture, training of our youth in technology jobs so that they can compete and participate in the jobs of the future as well as supporting our women with women-centric programmes as well as supporting Medium and Small Scale Enterprises, Nano credit and ensuring that we are respected in the world.
“Mr President has engaged with leadership around the world and they have acknowledged the kind of reforms and efforts we are doing. Nigeria is the hope of Africa, and much as sometimes we feel angry that we could have done something faster than we have done, but we are a great nation, we are a blessed nation and we should have reason to celebrate our blessing.”
Although one could argue that President Tinubu’s removal of the fuel subsidy and the liberalization of the exchange rate—policies that have contributed to rising inflation—are necessary measures to address unsustainable policies, comparing the struggles of the English people with mortgage payments to the hardships faced by Nigerians unable to afford medications or food appears insensitive.
Calls for the need for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to change course in terms of his policies have intensified in recent times.
This was in light of the hardship which these policies have thrown huge swaths of Nigerians into as prices of food have gone high amid other challenges.
However, the president has continued to argue that tough decisions are necessary to save the country from complete collapse.
