Dele Alake: Tinubu taking bull by the horns — bold economic reforms will mature soon

Dele Alake, minister of solid minerals development, has appealed to Nigerians to allow the “bold economic policies” of President Bola Tinubu to mature.

He said it is hasty for Nigerians to protest against economic hardship 14 months into the life of a new administration. 

A nationwide protest with the theme #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria has since commenced. 

Speaking during a world press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, Alake said Tinubu is “taking the bull by the horns” and “redirecting our energies and resources towards instituting enduring legacies”. 

“Nigerians must decide whether we need to go and make progress and let the necessary bold policies grow into maturity or we regress as a society. We must make that decision,” he said.

“We can’t escape it. You can’t make an omelette without breaking the eggs.

“There is no way you can advance a society, economically, socially, politically and even infrastructurally without re-engineering and restructuring that society and putting it on the path of enduring progress.

“All the societies that our youths and even elders run to… whether we run there for social succour, economic succour, political or mere enjoyment of the ambience of a developed society, those societies were not where they are today by fiat or through a magical wand. 

“Some generations before now in those societies made the necessary sacrifices when those sacrifices were of course very germane.

“It is the result of the sacrifices made by those previous generations that you all run to enjoy while we refuse to make our sacrifices at home… so that our today and tomorrow may also be better.

“But we can only run for a while. The more we run from the realities staring us in the face, the more we postpone the doomsday but God forbid.”

Alake said Nigerians are very lucky to have a leader as fearless as Tinubu.

“We have been very lucky that at this point in the history of Nigeria, we have somebody who can take bulls by the horns and say ‘we must end the years of the locust and we must redirect our energies and resources towards instituting enduring legacies,” he added. 

“And those are the philosophical reasons behind the economic reforms that we are going through.”