‘A wishful thinking to expect succour from Tinubu’, Dele Momodu faults president’s address on protests

The publisher of Ovation Magazine, Dele Momodu, has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s Sunday broadcast, saying the speech lacked substance
In a post on his X handle on Sunday, the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) chieftain said the president failed to address key issues that led to the nationwide #EndBadGovernance protests that kicked off on August 1.
Momodu‘s criticism of Tinubu’s address followed similar knocks by prominent Nigerians including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka and former Minister of Education,Oby Ezekwesili, among others, who all believe the president’s address did not resonate with ordinary Nigerians.
The Ovation publisher said he did not really expect anything different from what the president reeled out because his media team would not tell him the true situation on ground.
He wrote:
“Fellow Nigerians, after the long awaited speech of PRESIDENT BOLA Tinubu eventually came this morning, I’m sure most of you would be as stupefied as me.
READ ALSO:12 key takeaways from Tinubu’s broadcast on nation-wide protests
“I must confess that I had little hope of Tinubu granting some concessions to the aggrieved Nigerians.
“As a man who has held iron grip on Lagos State in the last 25 years, it would be difficult for him to change a winning formula that has worked for him ever since.
“Also, what did we expect his advisers to be telling him when most of them have been his most fanatical cronies from Lagos who have learnt never to challenge the Master?
“So it was mere wishful thinking on the part of incurable optimists like me to think he was going to have mercy on hapless and seemingly helpless Nigerians.
“Just for academic purposes, let’s reel out what a sensitive leader, who craves the rightful position in posterity, would have done and said:
1. In view of the unprecedented suffering being experienced by Nigerians, we have decided to cut the cost of governance drastically.
Some Ministries will be scrapped and some Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and all redundant personnel would be eased out. No official cars would be procured anytime soon.
2. The number of aircrafts on our Presidential fleet will be reduced to maximum two. I offer sincere apologies that we went ahead to invest in luxury items at this bad times. We shall place immediate embargo on subsequent purchases.
3. Subsidy of petroleum products will be reviewed thoroughly to ascertain the genuine costs and true billing of the controversial payments.
While we hope to achieve this in maximum of three months, we shall revert to old prices within this period in order to reduce the heavy burden on our people.
We shall also escalate work on our existing refineries without which we shall be throwing away loads of resources. Nothing has stalled our refineries other than reckless corruption. This we are blocking immediately.
4. Instead of tasking civil servants and politicians to handle students loans and vocational grants, we shall engage reputable accounting firms and banks to set up modalities for credits and activate the disbursements…” – CHIEF DELE MOMODU

""Fellow Nigerians, good morning. After the long awaited speech of PRESIDENT BOLA Tinubu eventually came this morning, I'm sure most of you would be as stupefied as me. I must confess that I had little hope of Tinubu granting some concessions to the aggrieved Nigerians. As a man… pic.twitter.com/choaZdfdnH
— Dele Momodu Ovation (@DeleMomodu) August 4, 2024

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