By Musa Tanimu Nasidi
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has told Nigerians to be hopeful of good times ahead despite the pains they may be going through at the moment.
Tinubu gave the assurance in his first address to the nation on Monday, to mark the the 2023 Democracy Day in honour of the late Chief MKO Abiola, the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
Tinubu who acknowledged the hardship being faced by Nigerians in the aftermath of the fuel subsidy removal, said his administration will compensate these sacrifices with massive investment in key areas including “transportation infrastructural development, education, regular power supply, healthcare, and other public utilities that will improve their quality of life.”
According to the President, “the temporal discomfort occasioned by the subsidy removal was necessary to save the country from going under.”
Speaking on the fuel subsidy removal, Tinubu said:
“I feel your pain. This is one decision we must bear to save our country from going under and take our resources away from the stranglehold of a few unpatriotic elements.
“I admit that the decision will impose an extra burden on the masses of our people. Painfully, I have asked you, my compatriots, to sacrifice a little more for the survival of our country”.
President Tinubu also said: “The abortion, by military fiat, of the decisive victory of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the June 12, 1993, presidential election, up to that time, the fairest and freest election in the country’s political evolution, turned out, ironically, to be the seed that germinated into the prolonged struggle that gave birth to the democracy we currently enjoy since 1999.
