The city of Lagos had a reputation in the eighties and early nineties as chaotic, heavily polluted and a sore on the national psyche. Lagos then was referred to as the urban jungle where life was brutish, miserable and probably short. At the resumption of civil rule in Nigeria in 1999, Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu took over the reins of government in Lagos state and met multiple layers of challenges confronting Lagosians.
Tinubu then spent the next eight years untangling the knotty issues while also confronted with external political challenges. After eight years the then governor had stemmed the rot that had long plagued the state and largely laid the foundation with a clear template of what is today referred to as the new Lagos and by extension Lagos state.
President Tinubu emerging as Nigeria’s current leader is coming at a time when the option are either to maintain the statuesque or disrupt the system and bring about a new change. President Tinubu probably relying on his experience of being a natural disruptive agent, has decided to do what he is most comfortable with doing, but believing in himself while many might find it difficult to see ahead of the prevailing foggy conditions.
President Tinubu’s decisions on the economy has exposed the reality of the country’s economy which was falsely dressed up as a young spinster courted by a number of attractive admirers. The president’s choice of disrupting the old regime and exposing the new reality has come to majority of Nigerians as a shock. The impact of this shock is reverberating far beyond expectations. Sadly for many of us, we thought the we could continue with our old ways of doing things, without the possibility of a reversal. President Tinubu on his part feels very comfortable taking difficult decisions, because he is used to doing such. What the president didn’t tell the people before hand was that he was determined to unsettle the system to achieve a more functional and productive economy long term.
President Tinubu has now stated that Nigeria had in the past been travelling in the wrong direction from a structural and economic perspective and the only option left for the country is to realign the tracks so that the economy doesn’t derail.
While the president stirs the wheels of state, majority of Nigerians who are vulnerable and struggling must be assured that the current hardship wouldn’t be prolonged, while government is seen to making efforts getting the economy back on track.
Olugbenga Adebanjo
(C) Copyright 2024.
Ojuriblog 