Vice President Kashim Shettima has disclosed that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is facing the difficult and challenging task of fixing the problems confronting Nigeria.
Shettima said the current administration has no plans of deceiving Nigerians or making life more difficult for citizens.
This was as he assured that the current economic challenges confronting the country would soon be over.
He spoke yesterday in Lagos during the 29th pre-Ramadan lecture organised by the University of Lagos Muslim Alumni, UMA, with the theme, “Economic Reforms for Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects for the Future.”
Represented by his Special Adviser on Political Matters, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the Vice President urged Nigerians to react to the current realities “in a responsible and mature manner.”
He said: “Yet, my brothers and sisters, we do not have the choice of continuing in the direction that brought us where we are today. We have to fix this country, and failure to do this is not an option. All the options we have are difficult and challenging, and they are, without a doubt, more telling on the poor. If there are easier and reliable alternatives to the policy choices we have adopted, we would have adopted them.
“Our administration does not plan to make the lives of Nigerians more difficult. Nor do we intend to deceive fellow citizens that the change in direction and the expected outcome can be achieved without pain or sacrifices.
“We are also acutely aware that ours is a set of related Nigerian problems, and the solutions we seek must be genuinely informed by a Nigerian context, not the experiences of others or the preferences of special foreign interests which are removed from consequences of mis-steps or errors of judgement.
“We expect that Nigerians should express their feelings over our circumstances in a responsible and mature manner. We are also a deeply religious people, and we believe in the powers of faith and prayers.”
A social commentator, Reno Omokri has claimed that there would be an epidemic of unmarried women in Nigeria if the country had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to more countries.
This he blamed on the “Industrial Money Obtainer culture” of Nigerian women, especially those from the southern part of the country.
He said he was not surprised that popular gospel singer, Moses Bliss married a Ghanaian woman, adding that “their women tend to be easier to relate with than many Southern Nigerian women.”
In social media platform on Sunday, Omokri noted that “when Southern Nigerian men travel within Africa and outside Africa and encounter beautiful women who are not money conscious, they quickly lose their appetite for Nigerian women.”
He claimed that “Nigerian men are considered a catch by South African and Kenyan women.”
He added: “We urgently need a cultural reorientation amongst our women. Especially in Southern Nigeria.
“The monetisation of relationships in Southern Nigeria is just too suffocating. I am well-travelled, and I am yet to see the level of commercialisation of romance I have seen in Southern Nigeria. I call it as I see it!”
Daily Post/ Mary Ogboye
