The Nigerian economy is seriously going through stress, no doubt; but the government is very much alive to this reality and is sweating it to find matching solutions that would yield ground for better days and living in our country.
A former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, in trying to mock President Bola Tinubu, came up with the ‘T-Pain’ catch phrase, to stimulate his audience but ended up ridiculing himself when All Progressives Congress (APC) handlers reminded him that Tpain is better than ‘P-pain’.
His T-pain was interpreted to mean ‘Tinubu-pain’ occasioned by the hardship in the country, but netizens have dubbed it ‘Temporary-pain’ which has been President Tinubu’s position concerning his reforms initiatives.
They went further stated that T-pain was better than P-pain, meaning ‘Permanent-pain’, where P- pain was synonymous with Abubakar’s political excurpations.
Indeed I find Atiku Abubakar’s reduction of our challenges to be most unpatriotic at a time when we all be working together to better our country. Politics should be put aside for statesmanship.
When nations run into economic troubles, their statesmen rise, offering constructive and useful advice. Trying to induct T-pain neologism to underwhelm the president was most unpatriotic.
First, President Tinubu has remained resolute in his position, that he would take some painful decisions that are necessary to rejig our nation’s economy, and that by doing that, we are bound to undergo some “temporary pains”, before the salutary import of his reforms begin to manifest.
The President has never shied away from that position, as his policies are meant to provide long term solutions to our economic conundrums. And, as can be found in other economies, when certain reforms are introduced, the tendency to disrupt existing stereotypes is often rife.
It is difficult for people or industry players to adjust to certain realities which may occur as a result of those reforms, hence Mr. President cautioned ab-initio that we should bear the temporary consequences of these unavoidable reforms to get the ship of state sailing.
When opposition politicians play politics with our economy and policies without offering alternative solutions, it exposes their own deficiencies and ridicules their content.
They should know when to draw the line between partisanship and statesmanship. Nigeria must survive and endure first before politics can be played.
The ‘temporary pain’ mantra, which Atiku Abubakar tries to use to vilify President Tinubu, does not amount to an end in itself.
It is essentially a means to an end. The President is sweating the beleaguered economy which had been thoroughly decimated through indecent and predatory economic engagements by those who presided over the state in the recent past.
Rather than lament the economic woes, he has remained stoic, bold, courageous and forward looking. Those who like Abubakar take umbrage at him for the woes in the system, are unable to offer alternative ideas and solutions to address the downturns.
It is time for us all to be upright and stand on end in character As we speak, subsidy is almost an effaced word in the economic lexicon in Nigeria. Those who were economic saboteurs swim
Let all good hands be on deck now. Let all sheath their swords, and join President Tinubu to get it right
ming in the gravy boat of the sub – sidy fraud have started counting their losses. They are not giving up the fight easily.
With humongous resources at their proposal, they are ready to put spanners in the works, but given President Tinubu’s strong determination to push through his agenda to finally bury subsidy, it is already yielding results.
It is still a battle that should be sustained to finally nail the coffin of subsidy and set the country on the path of economic freedom. Aside the subsidy regime, there are other interventionistic initiatives being undertaken by the president to address other challenges facing the country.
The Students Loan is one. Reducing our external debts is another. Infrastructural renewal is yet again another area of attention by the president. Investment in agriculture has been increased, while the general outlook of the economy has improved.
The political engagement by political actors has its own telling impact on the stability expected in the system to make room for growth and development.
The frictions being orchestrated by Abubakar and his counterpart in the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, are like pouring fuel in an already burning inferno.
Unable to stabilise their political parties, they want to stabilise Nigeria overnight, throwing around their vaulting ambition to preside over the nation. The system is presently politically overheating by the unwholesome activities and politics of survival of the opposition PDP and LP.
These frictions are at best major distractions to the government’s concerted effort to create stability in an already polarised polity.
What Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi should be doing at this time would be to generate ideas that could present further solutions to our collective problems, and not just about criticism.
There has to be a season to play politics and a season to rally round the country to speak patriotically in order to address our peculiar challenges. Playing politics with everything in the name of opposition is simply redherring.
We need solutions not lamentations without a roadmap. Temporary pains are better than permanent pains. When policy initiatives are beginning to yield fruits in the long run, the present hardship would be effaced.
After elections, statesmen join hands with the government to support their leadership and proffer solutions to challenges. President Tinubu is not remiss in his responsibility.
The fruits of his interventions would soon manifest, and the wounds, carbuncles and dislocations in the system will heal. Nigeria will survive. Let all good hands be on deck now. Let all sheath their swords, and join President Tinubu to get it right.