With Steve Otaloro
In the annals of Nigeria’s political journey, there comes a time when destiny calls for a man not necessarily perfect, but perfectly suited for the demands of a critical hour. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is such a man. A leader who stepped into the storm not to bask in power, but to steady a drifting ship. He did not wait for the winds to calm; he took the helm and charted a new course with courage many feared to summon.
At his very inauguration, when others might have chosen comfort and applause, Tinubu declared unequivocally, “Fuel subsidy is gone.” That was no mere rhetoric it was a cannon shot in the face of entrenched interests who fed fat on Nigeria’s lifeblood. Delay would have been deadly. Hesitation would have been betrayal. But he chose resolve, the kind only found in those who understand that true leadership means bleeding for the people, not feeding off them.
A man who plants a tree under whose shade he may never sit is a statesman, not a politician. Tinubu has planted that tree. And the fruits, though not yet fully ripe for all, are growing.
Had those hard decisions been shelved, Nigeria may well have slipped into economic asphyxiation. His actions, though painful, were life-saving like bitter medicine that heals. The removal of the oil subsidy, long a shadowy playground for cabals, has today opened the vaults of national revenue, empowering states with allocations never seen during the era of that deceitful drainpipe. Don’t take my word for it, ask your state governors.
President Tinubu is not without flaws, no man is, but he is divinely positioned to rescue this nation from the quicksand of decline. His reforms are breathing sanity back into our oil and financial sectors once bastions of unchecked corruption. Today, Nigeria is reclaiming credibility on the world stage, not with borrowed praise, but with earned respect.
His global recognition, even from former critics and opposition-led states, is not noise, it is the echo of truth reverberating beyond partisan lines. While some still see through the fog of ethnic or emotional sentiment, Nigeria is being pulled from the edge. Our duty now is not to idolise, but to recognise. Not to worship, but to support.
To change the course of a drifting ship takes more than a wave; it takes the captain’s steady hand and time. President Tinubu has steadied the wheel. But for the ship called Nigeria to reach its destined shore, we must not change captains mid-voyage.
The road to renewal is not paved in four years, it is carved through consistent, focused leadership. And as all macroeconomic indicators begin to whisper recovery declining inflation, stabilised exchange rates, growing investor confidence, we must not derail what has only just begun to bear fruits. The future demands continuity, not chaos.
Many of our state governors, once divided by party colours, are now rallying under one umbrella -APC, not for personal gain, but for national alignment. They see what’s ahead. They feel the pulse of a government that’s working, and they are converging to ensure 2027 secures the stability required to deepen the progress already made. Their defection is not defiance, it is a declaration that the vision must continue.
From the second Niger Bridge to the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, from renewed railway corridors to overhauled seaports and airports, President Tinubu is building legacies that concrete will remember and generations will walk upon. These are not phantom projects on PowerPoint, they are world-class infrastructure, sprouting across the nation, binding commerce, culture and communities together.
The seeds of greatness have been sown, what remains is to nurture them with time, with trust and with the courage to carry on. Let us not trade the path of healing for the mirage of change. Let us strengthen the hands that dare to build.