Audu praised Nigeria’s 25 years of uninterrupted democracy, expressed optimism about the coming years, especially with reform initiatives by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Aliyu Audu, says Nigeria’s path from underdevelopment to economic prosperity requires time, long-term vision, and shared responsibility, calling for patience from the citizens.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Beam on Monday, Audu argued that Nigeria, while unique, can accelerate development if citizens and leaders commit to difficult but necessary reforms.
“There are certain processes in terms of mission building, moving from underdevelopment to being developed. We have examples across the world. It took an average of 35 years for Singapore, 50 years for India, and a couple of others. But we are Nigerians, we are different. It doesn’t have to take that long,” he said.
While reflecting on the country’s political journey, he acknowledged past failings but called for unity.
“We’ve been in power for 10 years, and the PDP did a very bad job in their 16 years, but it’s our collective past. We have to own it,” the chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) said on the show.
“Every single party and leader that has led this country, however well you want to rate their performance, we’re still together. We’re building nationhood.”
Audu praised Nigeria’s 25 years of uninterrupted democracy, expressed optimism about the coming years, especially with reform initiatives by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
“I honestly think that in another four to six years, a lot of jobs will be created,” he said.
“The president recently launched the Nigerian Credit Guarantee Scheme with an initial startup fund of ₦100 billion. What this does is improve the spending power of the average Nigerian,” he explained.
Linking inflation to broader economic factors, he said, “The cost of living isn’t just about the price of goods in the market, it’s about the purchasing power of the citizen. If purchasing power increases, life gets better. If jobs are created, life gets better.”
He equally stressed the importance of confronting corruption head-on: “If we are able to remove corruption from our identity, we’ll have more money available for job creation. “We need to make it a deliberate thing to shame corruption.”
“Money is just a medium of exchange. A million naira sitting in one place is not the same as a million naira that has exchanged 10 hands,” Audu explained.
“The unfortunate thing we’ve done for decades is allow a huge sum of money that should move around the economy to be hoarded by corrupt leaders.”
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