A national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, says a focused and determined leader like President Muhammadu Buhari is needed to re-engineer the economy.
Speaking during the Eid-el-Kabir celebration in Lagos, Tinubu said: “Nigerians adopted democracy; we are going to live through this democratic government. We need a President Buhari to retool and re-engineer, that is what he is doing in the economy and he is doing it gradually, otherwise we don’t want it to fall apart again.”
Tinubu said he was very proud of what he did in Lagos State when he was a governor there, saying We were meticulous, dedicated and focused and we lifted the spirits of our people and that is why it is important for Nigerians to be focused now.”
He said Nigeria’s seed of growth and development was “eaten” by treasury looters.
“We ate the seed of growth for breakfast. Therefore, there is nothing for lunch or dinner. Nothing to harvest that is what we talk about looters. But it will not take a magical touch to bring it to reality. It takes patience and perseverance. Three years is not enough time for retouching, redevelopment and re-engineering the country.
“There is a lot of hope, there is a lot of expectation, but when the treasury was empty, when the salaries were outstanding, when the quality of life is low, what will you do? We have oil, they didn’t save money and we have not diversified the economy. We have eaten our dinner for breakfast, nothing in the kitchen.
“Economic development and the future of the youth are crucial in the growth of any nation and we are taking care of that. You have to re-grow the economy, re-engineer it from bottom-up, during that process; it is always very difficult for ordinary people.
“They bear the brunt of the economic difficulties because they are in the lower cadre of the society. You can only use and depend on what you have and if you manage to use resources carefully, yes, you end up enjoying a multiple development in the country and that is why I always emphasise that foundation matters. Even this house is not spared too, from demands from the poor and the needy, but without re-growing the economy, re-tooling, re-engineering the economy, we will not have anything,” he said.
