“Will the President – yet again – beg us to endure hardship?”
The abovementioned expression is the million-dollar question on the lips of many Nigerians who say they have always been prepared to lend an empathetic ear to the President, Bola Tinubu, whenever he makes one of his many pleas to citizens to endure hardship.
Going forward, however, it seems that the President’s usual efforts to strike a chord with Nigerians will hit a brick wall, and this is as a result of the biting economic hardship that has continued to perplex the people.
More exasperatingly, the President’s entreaties, which usually come with reassurances that he will turn the country’s fortune around, will likely be taken with a pinch of salt and could leave many desperate Nigerians with frayed nerves, making them insist on results – not excuses.
Unfortunately, experts have argued that there is no end in sight yet to the hardship and anguish being experienced in the country. They also say that even though they do not want to be bearers of bad news, it is the downtrodden citizens that will yet languish in lack and penury.
On their part, ordinary Nigerians say that the President will sound like a broken record if he once again attempts to assuage the collective anxiety of Nigerians who are tired of hearing him beg them.
One such Nigerian said he wanted to hear “a new message” from the President.
“I want to hear a new message from Tinubu. I won’t like the idea of the President begging us again to endure hardship or to be patient with his government,” said Kehinde Afolayan, a bus conductor in Ikeja, Lagos, trying to eke out a living.
“I supported the President when he was the Governor of Lagos State. I am still supporting him today. This is why I listened to his past pleas. As things are now, I am overwhelmed by the hardship in the country.
“The President should realise that people have passed their elastic limits and are now experiencing breaking points. They can’t endure again. And I dare say that if the President asked Nigerians to be patient and endure hardship yet again, they would insult him in the open”
“We need solutions now that will change our story. Tinubu must hurry up with implementing his economic plans because we can’t wait all day” Afolayan added.
Another Nigerian, Hafisat Amusa, who sells foodstuffs in the Egbeda area of Lagos State, said that she does not want to listen to another appeal by the government or “the friends of the government.”
According to her, the pleas have not done anything to stop the general increase in the prices of her wares, some of which she can no longer afford to sell.
“Let no one come here to tell me about enduring hardship in this country. Is it when we die that Nigeria will be better off? Both the government and the friends of this government should spare us their pleas. We don’t need it.
“I know you (referring to our correspondent) come to this market sometimes to buy foodstuffs. Is this how the market was last year? Or, are you journalists not affected by the hardship?
“Just look around. For instance, I no longer sell ‘Oloyin beans’ because people cannot afford it. And most of the other beans available now, you will boil them for ages before they get cooked,” Amusa lamented.
While defending the policies he introduced after he took charge of the affairs of the country in May 2023, Tinubu said that he inherited a struggling economy from his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, and had no option but to introduce a “painful but needed” end to oil subsidy.
Therefore, for the past 16 months since he took office, Tinubu has continued to acknowledge the severe impact his policies, including the floating of the naira, has caused but keeps assuring Nigerians that his administration is on top of the situation.
In July last year when Nigerians were already feeling the pinch as the prices of basic household items were shooting up, Tinubu pleaded with them, “I understand that our people are suffering; yet there can be no childbirth without pain.
“The joy of childbirth is the relief that comes after the pain. Nigeria is reborn already with fuel subsidy removal. It is a rebirth of the country for the largest number of smugglers. Please tell the people to be a little patient.”
Following the appeal, the former Lagos State Governor, who said becoming President was his lifelong ambition, made several other appeals to Nigerians
Tinubu has told Nigerians to put up with biting costs of living and skyrocketing inflation tearing households apart. He also promised that his administration was doing all it can to ameliorate the sufferings of beleaguered masses.
The latest appeal by Tinubu was made only last month. The President said via a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, by the State House, that “an avoidable lag” prevented his administration’s “good and helpful plans” from coming to fruition.
He said, “Fellow Nigerians, this period may be hard on us and there’s no doubt that it is tough, but I urge you all to look beyond the present temporary pains and aim at the larger picture.
“All our good and helpful plans are in the works. More importantly, I know that they will work. Sadly, there was an avoidable lag between subsidy removal and these plans coming fully online.”
But, unexpectedly, the video stirred controversy after the Special Adviser to Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said it was old and a clip from the broadcast the President made last year.
Apart from Tinubu, several prominent individuals have also been spotlighted in the past for pleading with Nigerians to bear with the President.
Some of the persons who made impassioned appeals to Nigerians include two of the President’s children, Seyi Tinubu and the Iyaloja General of Lagos State, Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, as well as a former military Head of State, Yakubu Gowon.
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, a former Governor of Ogun State, Gbenga Daniel, and the Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau, who said that the hardship experienced by Nigerians was not peculiar to the country, but a global problem, are among those whose names are also on the list.
Although many Nigerians have exhibited patriotism and decided to build hope up around the pitch made by Tinubu for them to endure hardship, present realities indeed indicate that the people no longer want “the endless appeals and promises” made by the President.
According to Nigerians, the nearly 50 percent increase in petrol price, which came into effect early this month, is inexcusable.
Nigerians are aghast that petrol prices, on an unprecedented scale, soared to record highs of between N950 and N1, 200, a dire situation that will result in a corresponding hike in the prices of essential goods and services.
A political analyst, Alex Nwadike, told The Point, “Seriously, if the President is thinking of coming on television again to tell Nigerians to endure hardship, the people will not listen to him.
“The President should realise that people have passed their elastic limits and are now experiencing breaking points. They can’t endure again. And I dare say that if the President asked Nigerians to be patient and endure hardship yet again, they would insult him in the open.
“Have you seen the gloom in the land? How did we get here? Businesses are suffering and collapsing everyday and somebody still wants us to endure more hardship? Please, leave me out of that.”
Another analyst, Benedict Njoku, said, “Well, if the President tells Nigerians to endure hardship, what can they do? The last time the people tried to do something about their situation, we all saw how it ended.
“The nationwide hunger protests, which could have been used to hold the government accountable, did not achieve much.
“Therefore, I am almost certain that Nigerians still believe in the ability of the government to turn their situation around. This should be the only reason why more Nigerians did not take to the streets during the protests in August.”
