Tinubu’s one year in office typified by “Hopelessness, destitution’ – Northern elders

• Yusuf, a former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), said the Tinubu’s government is an harbinger of sorrow and destitution

The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) says the president Bola Tinubu administration has further impoverished Nigerians and made life a living hell for them.

A political commentator and top member of the forum, Prof Usman Yusuf, made this known during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme.

Yusuf said Tinubu’s government performance after one year in office does not encapsulate his ‘renewed hope’ campaign mantra, saying he has made Nigerians hopeless.

Yusuf, a former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), said the Tinubu’s government is an harbinger of sorrow and destitution.

“People have lost hope. It pains me to see our people lining up to collect cups of palliatives. Renewed Hope has turned into hopelessness. People have lost hope,” Yusuf said.

Tinubu, whose campaign mantra was ‘Renewed Hope’, was sworn in as President on May 29, 2023 after a keenly contest election in the February of the same year.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain hastily introduced some reforms such as petrol subsidy removal and the unification of the foreign exchange windows.

Both policies have been widely criticised by as Nigerians battle galloping inflation and skyrocketing cost of living that have sparked protests in some parts of the country.

With the inflationary pressure and the attendant effects on the economy, the Tinubu administration continued to appeal Nigerians to bear the pain of the moment which it promised would be temporary.

However, Yusuf said “the last one year has been a year of nothing but deception, destitution and hopelessness”.

“From next week, they will start telling us their propaganda,” the NEF member continued. “What have they done to benefit the ordinary people? In a span of one year, they have brought millions of people back into multidimensional poverty, they have pushed millions more children out of school because their parents cannot pay their school fees.”

The Ex-NHIS secretary also whipped the economic management Team of the President, describing the members as “tax collectors” rather than “economists”.

“The economic team, to me, looks more like tax collectors than economists. Taxation does not grow economy; only production does,” he stated