President Bola Tinubu has attributed the current hardships in Nigeria to actions and decisions made in the past.
During a meeting with the Forum of Former Presiding Officers of the National Assembly, led by Ken Nnamani, Tinubu highlighted the country’s failure to capitalize on its high crude oil production to improve living conditions.
He expressed frustration over community neglect, inadequate education systems, and lack of incentives to boost school enrolment, emphasizing the need for collective responsibility.
Despite economic challenges, such as fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate unification, Tinubu remains optimistic, advocating for collaboration, inclusiveness, and financial restructuring as the keys to Nigeria’s progress.
”Regardless of party differences of the past and difficulty of the present, you still believe in me and what we all plan for this country.”
”I thank you very much; no one will do it better than us. I have travelled the world and seen how developed countries have done it for themselves through collaboration, inclusiveness and financial structure.
”Yes, there is hardship, but how did we get here? What did we do when we had very high crude production?
“We neglected our communities; we neglected the goose that lays the golden eggs; we forgot even to give them a good standard of living.
”We forgot to educate our children. Go round and look at the dilapidated schools. The education environment must be decent enough for pupils to want to learn.
”We can complain from now till eternity that the school enrolment is low. But did we do anything to encourage the enrolment process? We must ask ourselves because it is a matter of conscience,” he said.
The removal of petrol subsidy on the president’s first day in office had tripled pump price of fuel.
Additionally, the move to to unify exchange rate windows, also a day one policy, pushed the naira to an all-time low, trading at above N1,600 to a dollar from N600 to one dollar he met on May 29, 2023.
