- Safiu Kehinde
O’tega Ogra, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Digital Media and New Media, has tackled the African Democratic Congress (ADC) spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, over his usage of President Bola Tinubu’s 74th birthday to reel out hardship under his administration.
NPO earlier Reported that Abdullahi had in supposed commemoration of Tinubu’s birthday had criticised the President, outlining what he described as failures in governance.
The ADC spokesperson said Nigerians are reflecting on the impact of Tinubu’s administration, raising concerns about economic hardship, insecurity, and the state of the country’s democracy.
He urged the president to reassess his approach to governance in his remaining time in office, calling for greater accountability and responsiveness to national challenges.
Reacting in a statement issued on his X handle on Sunday, Ogra slammed Abdullahi over the selective, strategic, and convenient nature of statement which labelled an amnesia.
While acknowledging the currently realities and challenges of the country highlighted by Abdullahi, Ogra slammed the ADC spokesperson over pretense of never been in power with the country facing similar challenges during the administration he served.
“Dear Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi, Fmr Honourable Minister under GEJ, Fmr APC publicity secretary, Fmr PDP stalwart, Fmr State Commissioner, Fmr State Governor’s Aide. In politics since 2003. There is a certain elegance to your message, sharp, emotional, deliberate. But there is also a certain amnesia to it, selective, strategic, convenient.
“Whilst it is unfortunate you chose the birthday of our President to highlight this amnesia, permit me, sir, to speak to it.
“Three things can be true at once: a nation can reinvent itself, a government can act, and a people can endure.
“You speak of hardship as though you discovered it. You speak of insecurity as though it began yesterday. You speak of governance as though you were never inside the room when decisions were made.
“You have not just criticised but you have made an attempt at reinventing history.
“Yes, Nigerians are hurting in some areas. Yes, fuel prices have risen, sharply, painfully, undeniably even though President Bola Tinubu has made cheaper alternatives available.” Ogra wrote.
The Presidential aide defended the decision of the Tinubu-led administration to remove fuel subsidy, stressing that Nigeria had prior to the decision built a system where cheapness was artificial and sustainability was optional.
“But let us not pretend this storm began this morning. For years, we subsidised illusion, deferred reality, borrowed comfort, and let rent seekers take hold of our Commonwealth.
“You know this more then many, sir. For years, Nigeria built a system where cheapness was artificial and sustainability was optional.
“Now the correction has come, and suddenly, those (including you and many members of your new-found contraption) who midwifed the distortion have become its loudest critics.
“The Tinubu-Shettima administration did not remove subsidy because it was easy. We removed it because it was necessary.
“Hard choices, real consequences, no pretence. Here is the antithesis you glide past so effortlessly. What feels like punishment today is what prevents collapse tomorrow.
“We endure to rebuild, not rebuild to endure” He said.
On Abdullahi’s claims on insecurity, Ogra maintained that the security systems across the country have improved.
He noted that the country’s insecurity challenge transcended several past administrations as against the narratives painted by the ADC spokesperson.
“Your words carry weight but not balance. Nigeria did not become insecure in a single administration, nor will it be secured by a single speech.
“The threats we face are multi-layered including insurgency, ‘global’ terrorism, organised crime, cross border networks.
“Yet capacity of our systems have improved, security coordination has tightened, investments in intelligence and equipment have increased. Is it enough? No. Is it nothing? Also no.
“To describe a nation contending and fixing structural issues as a nation collapsing is not analysis, it is exaggeration. And exaggeration may win applause, but it does not build solutions.
“You invoke grief, and rightly so. Every life lost diminishes us. But grief must not become a tool for theatre.
“Because while you speak of failure, you carefully omit history, the years when these fires were lit, the years when you and those in power chose delay over decision. You were not a spectator then. You were an integral part of the system.” Ogra said.
On the economy, the presidential aide admitted that the strain was real with prices of commodities going high.
He however held that the prices are coming back down while the pressures, which were initially visible, have mostly stabilised.
“But reforms are not judged in headlines, they are judged in trajectories. FX stability is improving. Revenues are strengthening. Investment signals are returning.
“You do not fix decades in months. You correct distortions and direction, then you build momentum as President Bola Tinubu is doing.
“We are not where we want to be. But we are no longer where we were.” He added.
Reacting to the ADC spokesperson’s one-party system claim, Ogra cited his ability to criticise the ruling party freely and publicly as evidence that the country’s democracy is alive.
“And then democracy and your quiet warning of a one party state.
“Yet here you are, criticising loudly, freely, publicly. A democracy that permits this level of dissent is not shrinking, it is alive.
“Imperfect, noisy, contested, but alive. This is the paradox your message cannot resolve.” He said.
Ogra, in a final note, held that the country is undergoing correction rather than collapse as portrayed by Abdullahi.
He further maintained that the country is in a state of transition and not hopelessness, adding that the ADC spokesperson call for reflection by the President supposed to be an honest call with both directions of his administration since inception put into consideration.
“Because what we are witnessing is not collapse, but correction – a correction two of the leading contenders on your platform promised to undertake but Nigerians now know they never intended to carry them out. Not drift, but direction. Not hopelessness, but the difficult discipline of rebuilding.
“You call this hopelessness. I call it transition. Not easy, not quick, not comfortable. But necessary.
“So yes, Mr Abdullahi, birthdays are for reflection. But reflection must be honest in both directions. Not just what is hard, but what is changing. Not just what is painful, but what is purposeful. Not just what is seen, but what is being built beneath the surface.
“Nigeria cannot demand change and reject its cost. Nigeria cannot inherit decades of distortion and expect instant perfection.
“Nigeria cannot move forward by pretending the past does not matter. We endure to rebuild. We rebuild to rise.
“And here is the final truth, Mr Abdullahi, in its simple, stubborn, unavoidable form Nigeria and Nigerians remember. The record remains. The future will judge.” He added.