President Bola Tinubu, in his New Year address to the nation today acknowledged the daunting challenges and hardship faced by citizens seven months since assuming power even as he urged Nigerians to remain unbowed despite the tough times as his administration work assiduously to fulfill promises of his ‘Renewed Hope’ mandate.
In his third national broadcast, President Tinubu expressed hopes that having laid the groundwork of the nation’s economic recovery plans within the last seven months, the government is now poised to accelerate the pace of its service delivery across sectors.
He said: “Everything I have done in office, every decision I have taken and every trip I have undertaken outside the shores of our land, since I assumed office on May 29, have been done in the best interest of our country.
“Over the past seven months of our administration, I have taken some difficult and yet necessary decisions to save our country from fiscal catastrophe. One of those decisions was the removal of fuel subsidy, which had become an unsustainable financial burden on our country for more than four decades.
Another was the removal of the chokehold of a few people on our foreign exchange system that benefited only the rich and the most powerful among us. Without doubt, these two decisions brought some discomfort to individuals, families and businesses.
“I am well aware that for some time now the conversations and debates have centred on the rising cost of living, high inflation, which is now above 28 per cent and the unacceptable high under-employment rate. From the boardrooms at Broad Street in Lagos to the main streets of Kano and Nembe Creeks in Bayelsa, I hear the groans of Nigerians who work hard every day to provide for themselves and their families.
“Dear Compatriots, take this from me: the time may be rough and tough; however, our spirit must remain unbowed because tough times never last. We are made for this period, never to flinch, never to falter. The socio-economic challenges of today should energize and rekindle our love and faith in the promise of Nigeria. Our current circumstances should make us resolve to work better for the good of our beloved nation. Our situation should make us resolve that this New Year 2024, each and everyone of us will commit to be better citizens.”
Reeling out some of the gains made in the last seven months, the President said: “Just this past December during COP28 in Dubai, the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and I agreed and committed to a new deal to speed up the delivery of the Siemens Energy power project that will ultimately deliver reliable supply of electricity to our homes and businesses under the Presidential Power Initiative which began in 2018.
“My administration recognises that no meaningful economic transformation can happen without steady electricity supply. In 2024, we are moving a step further in our quest to restart local refining of petroleum products with Port Harcourt Refinery, and the Dangote Refinery which shall fully come on stream.
“To ensure constant food supply, security and affordability, we will step up our plan to cultivate 500,000 hectares of farmlands across the country to grow maize, rice, wheat, millet and other staple crops. We launched the dry season farming with 120,000 hectares of land in Jigawa State last November under our National Wheat Development Programme.
“In my 2024 budget presentation to the National Assembly, I listed my administration’s eight priority areas to include national defence and internal security, job creation, macro-economic stability, investment environment optimization, human capital development, poverty reduction and social security. Because we take our development agenda very seriously, our 2024 budget reflects the premium we placed on achieving our governance objectives.”
He ended the broadcast by calling on all Nigerians, especially political opponents in the last election, to work for the peace, progress, and stability of the country. “Election is over. It’s time for all of us to work together for the sake of our country,” he pleaded.
Reacting to the president’s speech former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has charged the Federal Government to address the economic hardship that Nigerians are going through in 2024, develop deliberate policy direction to grow the economy and “stop groping in the dark.”
Atiku made the call in his 2024 New Year message to the nation. In the statement released on Sunday, Atiku offered “adulation to God and a heart full of gratitude” as Nigerians enter the new year. He, however, acknowledged that 2023 was “definitely a challenging year” with important lessons for the future.
“The rising cost of food items, goods and services, the malfunction in our national economy and the degenerating state of our national and community security are all existential challenges that we have to face squarely in the New Year,” Atiku said.
He criticised the government’s “policy prescriptions,” stating, “certainly, many families and businesses already know the intensity of the trying times that we are currently going through – though we could have taken a completely different pathway, had the government been smarter.”
Atiku called for a “well-thought vision of National Planning that will deliberately make the common people of Nigeria the centrepiece of our development.”
“The Year 2024 is still new on its canvas, and so there is ample time for the current government to champion a pathway to addressing the acute hardship that Nigerians are going through,” he continued.
He urged the government to “show a clear direction of its policy projections and desist from the subsisting behaviour of groping in the dark.”
