Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has told Nigerians to lower their expectations on President Bola Tinubu’s abilities to address the country’s economic woes after just one year in office.
Tunji-Ojo, who made the charge during an interview on a television programme on Sunday, said Tinubu was not a magician and so citizens should not expect instant magic from him.
The Minister appealed to aggrieved Nigerians, especially intending participants of the #EndBadGovernance protest scheduled for August 1st to be patriotic and give Tinubu more time to turn around the fortunes of the country.
Tunji-Ojo said Tinubu should not be judged with the expectation to solve a 100-year-old problem in one year as the economy of the country did not just go bad in during his tenure and cannot be rebuilt overnight.
“What you see today is an accumulated mismanagement over the last 100, 60, 30 years,” the Minister noted.
“Mr President, to the best of my knowledge, never campaigned to be a magician; he campaigned as a statesman, he campaigned on the basis of ‘Renewed Hope’. Before hope could be renewed, it had dwindled.
“When you want to reboot hope that has been down, you need a bit of time, and we are on the right step.”
Tunji-Ojo added that all the avenues of engagement and dialogue should be explored before a nationwide protest while insisting that the President means well for the nation and has taken bold decisions including the removal of petrol subsidy which he described as a cancer.
“Nigeria is going through a surgical process and will emerge healthy and strong. We are pleading for time,” Tunji-Ojo pleaded.