By Stanley Nkwocha
HE DEMONSTRATED this reality during the presidential media chat, which created the platform for him to share some insights into his administration’s efforts to address economic, security, and infrastructure challenges while puncturing misleading criticisms by the cynics in the opposition regarding the 2025 budget and the tragic stampedes that claimed innocent lives in Ibadan, Anambra, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The President also talked directly to the people who overwhelmingly elected him in 2023, acknowledging the challenges facing the citizens and promising to deliver on his Renewed Hope Agenda with commitment and focus in 2025.
Nothing is more comforting than the acknowledgment of Nigeria’s difficult journey of nationhood. The President, as a father and captain of the nation, gave words of hope to Nigerians, assuring them that 2025 would usher in more economic prosperity and growth.
“I seek your understanding. I understand the trouble you’ve been through: the economic problems. It is just 18 months since I took the reins. We’ll maintain focus. Let’s believe in ourselves and in our country. Tomorrow will bring a glorious dawn,” he stated.
Also, the media chat, for once, paid to the debate as to President Bola Tinubu’s candor, competence, and charisma. In a deft display of craftsmanship, the president succinctly laid out the scorecard of his stewardship in the outgoing year, as well as his vision and next steps in the new year, to the soothing relief of well-meaning Nigerians.
Together with his deputy, Vice President Kashim Shettima, the President is definitely on a salvage operation for Nigeria’s socio-economic fabric. While President Tinubu is striving hard to see that the economy prospers, Senator Kashim Shettima has remained a dependable ally who is galvanizing ministries, departments, and agencies of government, as well as the state governments, to execute and actualize the policies of the administration in his capacity as Chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC).
The revelation by the President that his administration is re-energizing and reorganizing the security apparatus and personnel of the armed forces and the police with a view to enhancing their capacity to keep engaging and dismantling the operations of extremist groups in some parts of the country is also a pleasant new year gift.
From OPED2:
It is on record that under President Bola Tinubu, traveling to states like Maiduguri, Katsina, and Kaduna is now safer. The Abuja-Kaduna Road is quite safe due to the deployment of security agents manning multiple sections of these routes.
In this regard, he said the country’s security chiefs deserve commendation, not probe. “I’m not probing service chiefs. You cannot disrespect the institution because of the threat of war, without investment in technology, weaponry, and training,” he noted.
Any nation that is not able to feed itself is vulnerable and living in a compromised security situation. This explains why the issue of the national economic diversification agenda raised in the presidential media chat is apt.
President Bola Tinubu noted that his administration created the Ministry of Livestock and that over 2,000 tractors are expected in the ongoing agricultural revolution, all as measures to reduce the growing food-related inflation and ensure food security.
Corroborating the hope raised in the presidential media chat is the draft budget of N49.7 trillion for the year 2025 President Bola Tinubu laid before the National Assembly on Wednesday, December 18, 2024.
In the appropriation bill, the administration has a revenue target of N34.82 trillion to fund the N49.7 trillion budget, including N15.81 trillion for debt servicing.
The Appropriation Bill has been described by economic experts as unprecedented in the history of Nigeria, largely because it aims to consolidate on the gains of the Renewed Hope Administration in 2024, a year that shaped the administration’s policy direction.
The proposed 2025 budget, as the President succinctly puts it, seeks to achieve the restoration of macroeconomic stability, enhancement of the business environment, fostering of inclusive growth, including employment and poverty reduction, as well as the promotion of equitable income distribution and human capital development.
Tagged, “2025 Budget of Restoration: Securing Peace, Rebuilding Prosperity,” the appropriation bill is indeed a categorical and exhilarating story of the direction the Tinubu administration is poised to take in 2025.
After matching the grit of visionary and honest leaders who are courageous enough to reset their countries on the path of prosperity, with stringent policies in 2024, President Bola Tinubu is set to revamp the nation’s economy.
