1st October, 2023
By Adeyemi Adeleye
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) says President Bola Tinubu’s national broadcast to commemorate Nigeria’s 63rd Independence Anniversary sounds hopeful.
The South-West Zonal Secretary of SDP, Mr Femi Olaniyi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos that the President needed collective support, perseverance and patience of all and sundry.
“This is a speech of hope for a greater Nigerian. With collective support and lots of perseverance and patience, we all will laugh at last.
“Nigeria is for all of us and we must work in synergy to promote our economy and bounce back as the giant of Africa.
“The Speech sounds so hopeful and we hope he will fulfil all that he mentioned,” Olaniyi, who is also the Lagos State Chairman of SDP, said.
He, however, urged the President to expedite actions to meet Nigerian expectations in addressing the growing poverty, hardship and suffering.
Olaniyi advised Tinubu to use the occasion of the anniversary to intensify efforts to deliver hope in all ministries and sectors of the nation’s economy.
According to him, the President should have captured all issues labour unions were agitating for in his speech.
“The President needs to strive on social economy assurance to alleviate hardship in the land,” he said.
The chairman called for peace, unity and love among Nigerians to foster and build a prosperous country everyone would be proud of.
President Tinubu, in the 63rd independence anniversary broadcast on Sunday, commended the nation’s founding fathers and mothers, saying that the travails Nigerians had endured shall strengthen the country.
The President, who noted that his pledges were to reshape and modernise the nation’s economy and to secure the lives, liberty and property of the people, said that bold reforms were necessary to place our nation on the path of prosperity and growth.
Tinubu said that he was attuned to the hardships that have come due to fuel subsidy removal, saying “I have a heart that feels and eyes that see. Reform may be painful, but it is what greatness and the future require.
“We now carry the costs of reaching a future Nigeria where the abundance and fruits of the nation are fairly shared among all, not hoarded by a select and greedy few.
“A Nigeria where hunger, poverty and hardship are pushed into the shadows of an ever-fading past.
“There is no joy in seeing the people of this nation shoulder burdens that should have been shed years ago. I wish today’s difficulties did not exist. But we must endure if we are to reach the good side of our future.”
The President noted that his government was doing all that it could to ease the load.
Tinubu said that he had embarked on several public sector reforms to stabilise the economy, direct fiscal and monetary policy to fight inflation, encourage production, ensure the security of lives and property and lend more support to the poor and the vulnerable.
He added that his government was introducing a provisional wage increment to enhance the federal minimum wage without causing undue inflation, saying for the next six months, the average low-grade worker shall receive an additional N25,000.