Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has said the message of the young boy which was asking his mother to ‘calm down’ as she was set to punish him for a misdemeanour, is meant for the entire country.
The viral video showed how a little boy skillfully delayed spanking from his mother by appealing to his mother’s emotion and repeatedly telling his mother to “calm down” had earlier caught the fancy of Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. In his Sallah message, Sanwo-Olu appealed to Lagosians to calm down in the manner of the boy in that viral video said.
But Adesina holds that Nigerians should calm down, stating that Nigerians “are too uptight, nervy, edgy.”
“We grumble, murmur too much, call the government a lot of names, try to demonize those serving the nation, when it could be “our last chance. Last chance in the world” to really fix things,” he added in his opinion piece published on Thursday.
Adesina said if the opinions of “angry youths, religious leaders, political analysts, newspaper columnists, news reviewers, so-called activists” are all that is happening in the country, “then nothing positive is happening in the country.”
“It is all about insurgency, banditry, killings, joblessness, corruption, lack and deprivation. True? False!,” he added.
Nigeria wallows in long time security challenges from terrorists, notorious bandits and kidnappers. Continued spike in unemployment and poverty rate are other ills that have characterized Nigeria as a country.
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari had since his first term in office pledged to focus on fighting corruption, national security and diversifying the economy but critics and political analyst opined that no significant achievement have been made.
Nigeria’s economy still languishes and has recently became worse due to the coronavirus pandemic as it has crashed global oil price and has in-turn crippled Nigeria’s economy which accounts for over half of government revenues.
As at 2019, unemployment has nearly trebled to over 23 per cent under Buhari and another fifth of Nigerians are underemployed. The stock market has been among the world’s worst performing and the country has become home to 87m people living in extreme poverty.
But Adesina said these challenges are in “many countries of the world,” adding that “but they are not the only things happening in Nigeria. Only that we would not see the positive things, except we calmed down,” Adesina said.
“We would never enjoy the rainfall if we expect rainstorm to carry away our rooftop at any moment. Calm down. “I’m just telling you to be ‘calming’ down,” Adesina said.
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