You didn't show Nigerians mercy in your speech, Dele Momodu blasts Tinubu

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dele Momodu, has criticised President Bola Tinubu's speech delivered to Nigerians during a nationwide broadcast on the morning of Sunday, August 4, 2024.

The President bowed to calls and addressed the nation on the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest that entered the fourth day on Sunday.

Nigerians have been demonstrating on the streets of major cities across the country since last Thursday as they expressed their displeasure over the state of the economy.

They aired their grievances on the prevalent hunger and harsh economic climate that has rendered a lot of people desolate.

The aggrieved citizens had put forward some demands, including the reversal of removal of subsidy on petrol, reduction of cost of governance, and scrapping of the 1999 Constitution.

They also planned to continue the protests for 10 days or stop if the President addressed their concerns.

Tinubu ignores several requests from protesters

But, in the early Sunday morning speech, the President shied away from conceding to any of the protesters' demands.

Tinubu, who passionately appealed to the aggrieved Nigerians to leave the streets to prevent further bloodshed and destruction of public and private property, enjoined the protesters to explore the option of dialogue with the government.

He also defended his decision to yank off subsidy on petrol and unification of the foreign exchange market, which have been the major factors responsible for the biting economic situation.

He insisted that those decisions were necessary to undo decades of economic mismanagement and reroute the country back to the path of sustainable growth.

Momodu blasts Tinubu over his speech

But, reacting to the nationwide address in a post on his X account, Momodu argued that the President failed to show mercy to helpless and hopeless Nigerians

The celebrity journalist said he had hoped Tinubu would concede to some of the demands of the protesters and set a timeline for when such would be implemented.

He, however, said he had little hope that the President would grant concessions to the aggrieved Nigerians, judging by his antecedents when he held sway as the Governor of Lagos State.

"Just for academic purposes, let's reel out what a sensitive leader, who craves the rightful position in posterity, would have done and said:

"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.

"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.

"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.

"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..." Momodu said.