I said the current economic hardship is not solely to be blamed on the current administration of Tinubu because the things have been broken down since 1999, and you can see it breaking down. Is it Tinubu that spoiled Nigeria Airways? Nigeria Airways has been destroyed before even 1999. So, is it Tinubu that stopped the depots from working? Depots that were created by the military. They were all broken before that time. It will take time to repair those pipelines.
— Adebayo Babalola
By Kehinde Akinpelu
A former Kwara State governorship aspirant, Engineer Pastor Sunday Adebayo Babalola, has urged Nigerians not to blame the current economic hardship solely on the current administration of President Bola Tinubu.
He opined that the country has been having challenges for many years, even from 1999.
Speaking in an interview with journalists on Wednesday, he drew parallels between economic reform and farming, saying, “You have to sow a seed to reap.” He emphasized that the current administration’s efforts will yield positive results over time, even if the benefits aren’t immediate. According to him, tackling insecurity, revamping the power sector, and addressing other challenges will lead to significant improvements.
Babalola said: “I said the current economic hardship is not solely to be blamed on the current administration of Tinubu because the things have been broken down since 1999, and you can see it breaking down. Is it Tinubu that spoiled Nigeria Airways? Nigeria Airways has been destroyed before even 1999. So, is it Tinubu that stopped the depots from working? Depots that were created by the military. They were all broken before that time. It will take time to repair those pipelines.
“Is it Tinubu that spoiled the power? Power has broken down because people were not doing what they needed to do. It will take time to revamp the sector. It is very easy to demolish a house, in one day, you can demolish a very tall building. But to build or rebuild that house will definitely take some time. It won’t be one day, no matter how fast you are.
“You have to sow a seed in order to be able to reap. So, it’s a sacrifice we are all making. Things will get better. The government also tackled this insecurity. I can assure you, if the government wants to do it, they can do it. But maybe there could be some people who are benefiting from this insecurity. And once we tackle insecurity, we tackle power, we address some of other challenges, things will work out alright.”
The politician who also is a pastor stated that the policies of Tinubu’s administration will eventually benefit Nigerians.
He said that though some of them are currently painful and appear to have inflicted pains on many Nigeria, the pains will not last long.
He opined that the policies were necessary to redirect the country to a recovery and developmental path.
He, therefore, urged Nigerians not to be despondent because of the current challenges in the country and added that things will be better in the country.
The politician urged the citizens and other residents not to despair, in view of the current hunger, insecurity, poverty, and unemployment.
Babalola said: “My rating of Nigeria would be: we have not done well. But it is not a problem of the current sitting government. We know it is easy to demolish, but to build is always very hard. Let us keep seeing what they are doing. I have made public my stand concerning certain things, like petroleum subsidy. I knew it will bring hardship. But it is the best thing. Today, the state governments have more money, which some of them are not using well but that’s not the problem of the federal government.
“I knew that exchange rate harmonization will bring some hardship. In both cases, that I mentioned, it is only the businessmen that were smiling to the bank. People were not enjoying them. Yes, these are not as expensive, but people are not enjoying it. So, I knew they would bring hardship in those areas, but I can assure you, those policies will eventually make the country better. And there are many other policies that the federal government has put their hands to do, which in my candid opinion, will eventually benefit the people, even though they will be suffering in the current time. It’s not a sweet song, but it’s just like, you are eating the whole food you have at about 12 noon, and in the evening, you have nothing to eat, all because you are hungry. Then you will sleep in an empty stomach and wake up the following morning with nothing to eat. That is what we were doing.
“But what we are doing now is to preserve some, and say, okay, this afternoon, even though I am not satisfied, I will live a little for this evening, and a little for tomorrow morning, so that I will have breakfast, no matter how small, so that I can go out and walk the mall. I think that is better than the situation where we just want to lose all our ten fingers, put our ten fingers in the mouth, and eat and eat and eat. So, I think we are moving in the right direction economically. It’s hard because of the policies, but it will still eventually benefit the people.”
