Senator Shehu Sani has told President Bola Tinubu to consider the fact that Nigerians are suffering as he implements economic reforms, saying that the citizens shouldn’t die before the benefits of the reforms would be felt.
The lawmaker who represented Kaduna Kaduna Central at the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly spoke on Arise TV on Monday where he stated that the leaders’ should be seen to be making sacrifices as well.
He said, “There’s no president that has implemented a reform that has become popular but public opinion will change when people start seeing the fruit of what they have planted and the fruit of what they have suffered. You can’t implement a reform that inflicts hardship that denies people the basics, that is painful, for people to be applauding you. It hasn’t happened anywhere.
“It’s the risk that you have to take if you have to change the political economy and social direction of a nation. The only reason that is needed is that reform should come with. If you are reforming the economy it is about the people. It shouldn’t come to a point that before the food comes everyone has died. It’s important that the president as he implements economic reforms should also pay consideration that people are suffering and sacrifice should be seen across the board.
“If the people cannot pay the school fees of their children, they cannot find something to eat or they cannot afford the food and their lives are terrible and brutish, it should be seen on the side of the leaders too. The leaders’ should be seen to be making sacrifices. If the leaders live luxurious lives and they live a life of opulence, a life of ostentatiousness, you can’t tell the citizens to make sacrifices.
“It’s important that sacrifices should be above board because patriotism should not simply be for the poor. The rich, the powerful and those in positions of authority should also be ready to make sacrifices.”
He added, “In the past under Abacha’s government in the military era, there was Petroleum Trust Fund, there was Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), under Jonathan and others but in this era the money goes to the state. So it is for the state governors to be able to use the resources that have come for the betterment of the people.”
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