Recently, some political gladiators gathered in Abuja to whine and throw tantrums because they either lost the #NigerianElections2023 or lost out in the power game when their sins prevented them from being named minister to represent a state they had turned into a theatre of war.
And now, led by Nasir el-Rufai, the butcher of Kaduna, who superintended over the slaughter of Southern Kaduna Christians and the massacre of Northern Kaduna Shia Muslims, they want to use the same propaganda they successfully used against the Jonathan administration to turn Nigerians against the Tinubu government.
Was it not the same el-Rufai who lied that then President Jonathan and Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor created Boko Haram to ‘reduce the population of the Muslim North’?
As the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Take away the common enmity these strange bedfellows have for President Tinubu, and there is nothing to bind them together. Each had once betrayed the other.
The same Nasir el-Rufai who in 2010 called Buhari a bigot who is unfit to govern Nigeria and then went on to make a mentor out of the man he once called a monster now wants us to believe that Nigeria has retrogressed. But do the facts support his claims?
Last December was the first and only time that Nigeria experienced both a reduction in the price of petrol and wide availability of the product. Some people try to minimise this achievement, but you must celebrate baby steps to motivate movement to giant steps. And now, on the first day of February 2025, the petrol price crashed to ₦890. Some are still saying it is not worth celebrating.
But think about it. Did Peter Obi not condemn the situation when the price of petrol increased slightly? So, if it is alright to condemn when prices go up, why is it not right to commend when they go down?
Good things are happening in Nigeria. The Naira is at a seven-month high of ₦1530 to the dollar. The Federal Inland Revenue Service has raked in a record revenue of ₦21.6 trillion for 2024. Our economy grew by 3.46% in the last quarter on record for 2024, while federal allocation to states has doubled.
Additionally, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway has crossed far into Ogun. It is now approaching the border of Ondo State, even as work has commenced on the Sokoto-Badagry Super-Highway.
In aviation, the Federal Government facilitated a Nigerian carrier, Air Peace, to secure daily direct flights to London, which crashed ticket prices on that route.
For the first time since 1995, we are seeing a realistic effort to placate Ogoni land, restore peace to the area, clean up the oil spills, and resume oil production in the area. This will significantly boost Nigeria’s production capacity, which is already at a five-year high of 1.5 million barrels per day.
Most reassuringly, 60,000 Nigerian students from all geopolitical regions are now benefiting from President Tinubu’s student loan program, which has paid out ₦104 billion since May 29, 2023. Meanwhile, Peter Obi, who could not even build a single nursery, primary or secondary school, or university, has the effrontery to talk. This is not about Hero beer!
In all of this, we also give thanks to God that Bello Turji’s bandit son has been killed, and Bello himself is on the run. At the same time, Ali Kachala, Boderi Isyaku, and Sani Dangote have been neutralised and sent to join their ancestors.
Even in el-Rufai’s Kaduna, there is now peace, and I can bet my last Naira that even el-Rufai’s children will not want a return to their father’s days when Kaduna was known more for the Southern Kaduna Genocide and multiple school abductions.
Things were so bad that even their father, the then Governor, had to secretly un-enrol his son and their brother from the school he publicly enrolled him in because of fear of abduction.
Conversely, the ‘content creator’ in Finland is now behind bars, awaiting extradition to Nigeria to answer for his crimes along with his mentor, who is now anodyne in his DSS cell.
The reforms are working, and Nigeria is getting better. Yes, we still have a very long way to go. I would like to see inflation brought to single digits and a reduction in the cost of governance.
But as long as we are making progress, I will commend the Tinubu administration, and urge all Nigerians to focus on the progress made thus far, and support this government now and in 2025 so that they can deliver the goods.
There is disappointment here. But it is not from Tinubu. It is disappointment on the part of Nasir el-Rufai that he was not made a minister, which is why his wife, Hadiza, said to her son, Bashir when he criticised the government that:
“Would you be saying this if your father were part of this government?”
Reno Omokri
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