Tinubu's Nigeria, 2024 and the Talking Drum

"No matter how thin you slice anything, you still got two sides to it, you see. So you want to see both sides."

    63-0818 - The Uniting Time And Sign
    Rev. William Marrion Branham

The above quotes sums the attitude of a balanced mind concerning anything at all. A balanced mind is trained to examine the pros and the cons of any issue. It is unbiased and eschews sentiments in analyzing matters always striving to be just, fair and objective.  Those with this kind of worldview practice self awareness. They are able to hold their own regardless of who and how many hold contrary opinion.  The narrow minded person on the other hand is ruled by sentiments and emotions, the latter may be positive or negative. If they like you, you can't be wrong and if they don't dig you, you are always wrong. Again, their likeness or hatred is predicated upon some primordial sentiments of religious, tribal or political affiliations. It is this group that never see any good in whatever a government does once the leader does not fit their description of a good person. They are the sort who otherwise become see-no-evik and hear-no-evil if the leader catches their fancy. The aggression or affection are often transfered to the tenure of the leader in question blanketing a whole period in gloomy or flamboyant terms as it suites them.

Both perennial complainers and blind psycophants are inimical to societal good. Persistent complaints without giving credit where and when due have inadvertntly provided an excuse for leaders and their apologists who have learnt to remind us how we complained during the reigns of past leaders who we're now nostalgic about. It makes leaders develop thick skin. Psycophancy on the other hand turns leaders to self-conceited rulers who are not able to do better.

To some in Nigeria today it is the talk of " This Tinubu time" in a gloomy sense. They look back at the end of 2024 and ble President Tinubu for all their woes. They remember not any good thing happened to them or their loved ones during the year under review. It is not uncommon to hear someone who had bought his first car, got promoted in his workplace complaining of how Tinubu's policies have spoiled the year for him.

Opposition leaders have cashed into some disasters such as the deaths in stampedes to take down Tinubu as harbinger of disaster oblivion of the fact that such deaths were more common in some past administrations.

It is common knowledge that no matter the dark cloud there is always some silver lining and no matter how bright the sky there is always some dark cloud. The year 2024, like any other period of time had it's good and bad occurrences. Nigerians have truly experienced hardship almost unprecedented in contemporary history save for the latter part of Shagari's administration when we ate goat food. Tinubu's twin policies of subsidy removal and floating of Naira ensure inflation hit the roof drastically impacting the purchasing power of Nigerians. There have been disasters, both man-made and natural. The security scene witnessed a new demon of Lakurawa. Still on security Nigeria lost General Taoheed Lagbaja during the year. Some prominent Nigerians including Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyawu, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, Onyeka Onwenu, and Herbert Wigwe also joined the row of people watching us from above. Yes. It was a year that Tai Solarin's famous New Year wish, "May your road be rough" truly took meaning 

However, the year was not with it's up sides. The petroleum sector saw the behemoth Dangote Refinery roar to life. The Port-Harcourt and Warri refineries followed suit all employing Nigerians in their tens of thousands and immensely contributing to the economy. The Naira which exchanged for almost two thousand to a dollar is now rallying and the forex reserve swelling. The Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, kidnappings and herdsmen-farmers clashes are heard of less. There was no serious hair mishap during the year. Our railways were safe throughout 2024. There was significant increase in wages during the year and prices of staples are looking down at the end of the year. A measure of beans that sold for around three thousand naira is now two thousand or less. Rice, garri and many other food items have dropped prices going to the end of the year.

All these are reason enough to thank God and be upbeat about the new year. The pathological pessimist will not see anything good, the right thinking people however, know that the policies of Tinubu are already yielding results and given time, will benefit all Nigerians the more 

Many died and many were born in 2024. Some married while some divorced during the year. Some lost their fortune even as many made fortune during the year. It's like the talking drum, it faces someone and backs another.