The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on Friday accused politicians criticising President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Independence Day address of appearing to have prepared their reactions before the speech was delivered.
Onanuga said the criticisms suggested that some of the President’s opponents either did not read or properly listen to the October 1 address before issuing their responses.
In two posts on his verified X handle, @aonanuga1956, the presidential spokesman highlighted what he described as “immutable truths” from the speech, particularly Tinubu’s defence of his administration’s economic reforms and his warning against a return to the subsidy regime.
“The politicians criticising President Tinubu’s October 1 speech apparently hadn’t read it. They seemed to have prepared their reactions before the speech was delivered on network TV and radio”, Onanuga wrote.
He said one of the key points critics appeared to ignore was the President’s argument that his administration’s reforms did not create Nigeria’s economic weaknesses but were designed to confront them.
Quoting Tinubu, Onanuga said “our reforms did not create the weaknesses in our economy. They confronted them. Now, as certain influential but regressive voices would have us abandon the treatment and return to the abuse of addictive subsidies, we must resist their siren song. We must remember why we began this journey and how far we have already come”.
The President, in the Independence Day address, said Nigeria’s economy had grown by more than four per cent this year, with both the oil and non-oil sectors contributing to what he described as a renewed period of stable growth.
Onanuga, in his second post, also drew attention to Tinubu’s argument that successive governments had postponed difficult economic decisions and allowed distortions in the economy to deepen.
“For too long, the promise of Nigeria was undermined by choices that postponed difficult decisions and allowed deep economic distortions to grow.
“By 2023, poverty was rising, and hope was nearly gone. The country’s situation was darker than ever. We had no choice but to act”, Tinubu said in the address.
The President likened the country’s economic condition to that of a cancer patient faced with the choice of undergoing painful treatment with the prospect of recovery or relying on painkillers while the underlying illness continued to spread.
“Nigeria’s leaders chose morphine while praying for a miracle that never came”, Tinubu said.
According to him, previous administrations focused on the symptoms of Nigeria’s economic problems while allowing deeper structural weaknesses to take hold.
“They focused on symptoms while allowing the disease to take hold deep within the fabric of our society. We spent enormous sums sustaining inefficient arrangements that were never intended to last. We hid from difficult truths and passed the consequences from one generation to the next”, he said.
Tinubu said his administration decided on assuming office to take a different course despite the hardship accompanying the reforms.
“When this administration assumed office, we resolved to do things differently. We chose to excise the cancer. The reforms that followed were difficult. The side effects were real. Yet, we must never confuse the medicine with the disease”, he said.
The President maintained in the October 1 address that the economic outlook had improved after three and a half years of reforms, citing economic growth, lower inflation from its peak, stronger foreign reserves and greater stability in the foreign exchange market.
He also declared that the administration was moving from what he described as an “age of reform” to an “age of prosperity”, with emphasis now on reducing the cost of living, creating jobs, expanding production and ensuring that economic gains translate into improved living conditions for Nigerians.
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
