Vice President Kashim Shettima of Nigeria has become the first official in the President Bola Tinubu’s administration to admit that majority of Nigerians are angry with government officials as a result of the rising cost of living and its attendant hardship and poverty.
Shettima, who made the admission in Abuja on Saturday at the graduation ceremony of the Executive Intelligence Management Course 16, however, pleaded with Nigerians to be patient and support Tinubu so that he could work to solve the problems.
In his keynote address at the occasion, Shettima said the Tinubu-led administration was aware that Nigerians were going through harrowing times, and was doing everything possible to ameliorate the pains as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy and the attendant inflation.
“All of us here belong to a tiny segment of the Nigerian population. And you don’t need a soothsayer to tell you that the poor are angry with us,” the VP said.
“The poor are the most neglected segment of our society. You can hardly differentiate between them and their animals. Even the animals they rear belong to those in the city. So, there have to be kinetic and non-kinetic solutions to all the problems.
“We have to improve the quality of governance. And what we have is a tiny window of not more than 10 to 20 years. Let’s improve the quality of governance.
“I want to ask you to give the President the benefit of the doubt. Let us be patient. Let us support him.
“Let us rally round him and be reassured that he is determined to redefine the meaning and concept of modern leadership, and is ever ready to reposition the Nigerian nation. But without the support of you and I, he can’t do much”, he just added.
Shettima also suggested that creating jobs and giving hope to the populace would go a long way in curbing insecurity in the country.
“Let’s create jobs; let’s give hope to the populace. And once we create jobs, all this madness of insecurity will disappear.
“There won’t be Boko Haram and banditry if this is done, especially for us from the North. We can blame the bandits, but we in leadership positions owe it to posterity to address this”, he said.