Nigeria’s economic model not sustainable – Tinubu

National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has said that the current model upon which the Nigerian economy is based is no longer sustainable.

According to him, the situation in the realities of today’s market and global trends have rendered the nation’s economic model obsolete.

He also expressed optimism that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has begun the process of pulling Nigeria out of the misgovernance of the past.

Tinubu, who stated this on Saturday in Sokoto, while responding on behalf of honorary doctorate degree awardees of the Usuman Dan Fodiyo University at the Joint 32nd, 33rd and 34th Convocation and 40th Anniversary of the institution, said after “many years of mis-governance and its myriad consequences,” the country has a fresh opportunity to reshape its future.

According to him, the nation was led down a path in which bad was deemed good and good was deemed inconvenient.  “We were handed a way of governance in which anything goes and too much went – as if gone with the wind.

“Our present was squandered and future mortgaged. A few people took as their own what God intended to belong to all Nigerians.”
This, according to him, was not in tandem with the principle of “Conscience is an open wound, only truth can heal it” preached by the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate Usmanu Dan Fodiyo.

The former Lagos State governor contended that what obtained in the past was not the way to build the nation Nigerians seek.  “It was the way to lay waste to our dreams and to jettison all the lessons that heroes such as Usmanu Dan Fodiyo and our forefathers taught us.

“Yet, human nature is such that it cannot exist for long without true and justice. For a period, darkness may descend and a lie may rule. But not forever, society needs justice and fairness as much as the body needs food and water.

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“With last year’s election, the national conscience awoke.  The people rejected the distorted arrangements of past governments in order to make room for a better future. They had once again found the courage that Usmanu Dan Fodiyo had bequeathed them. They had rediscovered their way and their right to pursue it.

“Today we all participate in an epic struggle. We seek to undo many years of mis-governance and its myriad consequences. The process is hard because good is always harder to achieve than evil. Creation is always more difficult than destruction. Greed is easier than greatness.

“Yet Nigeria has begun the process of turning to its better self.  The government of President Buhari is cleaning out the rot of years of galloping corruption and avarice. This government is also moving to pursue policies that will spark development and bring prosperity to long oppressed Nigerians.”

Tinubu however warned that the process of re-building is not going to be a tea party, saying no battle is ever easy.

“Be reminded that this will be a battle.  No battle is easy.  We must be firm in our resolve to reform this nation. We must have the courage to stand fast in the times of difficulty, having faith that the rightfulness of our cause will see us through to the success of our collective efforts and yearnings.

“The truth today is that Nigeria has the greatest opportunity to get it right with a leader like Mr. Muhammadu Buhari.

“Another truth is that Nigeria and Nigerians are suffering under the yoke of corruption. The economy is based on a model no longer sustainable given the realities of today’s markets and global trends.

“There is much to fix. President Buhari is committed to fixing them. But he needs your support and patience. He cannot do it all alone. We must stand beside him or else we may be knocked down and not stand at all.

“Thus, let us be resolved to see reform and change that will make Nigeria rise as the nation it should be”, Tinubu sai

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