The director general of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mal Lanre Issa-Onilu yesterday disclosed how the emergence of President Ahmed Tinubu as Nigeria’s new leader in 2023 saved the country from total collapse.
Issa- Onilu noted that the cracks in the Nigeria’s building before Tinubu’s coming were apparent while the former leaders were only mending the cracks.
He, however, said that realising that the building ( Nigeria) might eventually crash on the citizens, Tinubu quickly pulled down the structure and commenced a reconstruction on a very solid foundation.
The NOA DG spoke at the 46th edition of the Media Parliament of the Kwara State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists ( NUJ), held at the NUJ Press Centre, Ilorin.
He said the removal of the fuel subsidy by President Tinubu was tantamount to pulling down the Nigeria’s hitherto weak structure and the reforms that followed the development were the rebuilding of the structure.
Issa- Onilu noted that these are indications that:” There’s hope for turning Nigeria around for good. President Ahmed Tinubu will do this.
“ President Tinubu as the governor of Lagos State launched a 25 – year blueprint for Lagos. The successive governments in Lagos have been implementing that blueprint. So, Lagos is on auto- pilot. Tinubu is rebuilding Nigeria. The leaders before him were only mending the cracks in the building, but Tinubu has taken the bold step to reconstruct the building totally. He has laid a solid foundation and commenced the rebuilding. This was the reason he in his inaugural speech removed the fuel subsidy.”
He, however, conceded to the citizens the right to ask the government to be fast about rebuilding the nation.
“Rebuilding is good, but the citizens have the right to say be fast about the rebuilding of the nation. This is a welcome criticism,” he said.
On the gains of fuel subsidy removal, the NOA boss posited that Nigeria’s average national revenue before the coming of Tinubu was N800billion, adding that since June 2023, the federal revenue has jumped to the average of N2.3trn .
“Nigeria’s challenges are not about our debts but about our inability to generate enough funds that we need. We now have a president who knows how to generate funds. For the first time in Nigeria ‘s history, we have a national budget of N54trn.
“Coming back home in Kwara there has been sudden upsurge in developmental projects in the last two years in Kwara. This is because resources are increasing,” he said.
Issa- Onilu who said the government was only asking Nigerians to live responsibly, stressed the need for all to support Tinubu administration to succeed.
Earlier, the chairman of the Kwara State council of NUJ, Ahmed AbdulLateef, had restated the union’s commitment to continue engaging government officials on government policies and programmes to foster a better understanding of such programmes.
