The former Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, said on Monday the current economic hardship in the country did not start with President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
The former governor stated this at the Akinjide Adeosun Foundation (AAF)’s 2024 Leadership Colloquium and Award held at Alliance Francaise in the Ikoyi area of the state.
He said Nigeria’s problems had a long history and needed a courageous President like Tinubu to fix them frontally.
The president has come under severe criticism over the economic hardship occasioned by the rising prices of food items and other costs of living, with many pointing to the removal of fuel subsidy and other policy initiatives of the current administration as causes of the problems.
Ambode said: “The challenges have nothing to do with the singular person called Mr. President; but if we don’t understand the fundamentals, we will start playing the blame games.
“We need to face our problems frontally.
“The major issue is that we are even tired of not fixing our issues. Now that we have found somebody that has decided in person of President Tinubu.”
The former governor urged Nigerians to stop blame games and be supportive, resilient, and patriotic about the country.
He added: “Until we decide ourselves to say that we should unite for the common cause called Nigeria, the security issues will not go.
“We are all in a position to support Mr. President, let us start to look at it from a different prism.
“We don’t have to wake up in the morning and talk ill of Nigeria. We get what we profess about Nigeria.”
He stressed the need for a self-awareness strategy in Nigeria to fix problems in the post-COVID-19 era.
“We must think out of the box. We have to feed ourselves.
“When we start to think by ourselves and today we will resolve the issues concerning Nigeria, we will smile,” the ex-governor added.