LET’S BUILD, NOT BURN

 We must never trade long-term gain for short-term noise, contends ABIODUN OLUWADARE

In every nation’s life, there comes a time when tough decisions must be made, when the old ways no longer work, and leaders must summon the courage to break the chains of unsustainable dependency. Nigeria is at such a moment. The fuel subsidy has been removed. The exchange rate has been unified. Corruption-prone distortions are being dismantled. And yet, as the nation embarks on this difficult but necessary journey, a familiar crop of politicians, rejected at the ballot, unsettled by irrelevance, have resurfaced, not to help but to hijack public frustration and burn down the house they once failed to govern.

These men and women, many of them veterans of Nigeria’s political decay, now call themselves the “coalition for salvation.” But scratch the surface and the truth emerges: this is not a coalition of patriots, it is a coalition of bitterness. They are not united by love for country or a vision for the future. They are united only by their hatred for Bola Ahmed Tinubu and their desperation for political resurrection.

Ask this coalition one question: What is your plan? What clear alternative do you offer the Nigerian people? Is it a return to trillions in fuel subsidies that enriched smugglers, bled the treasury, and made the poor poorer? Is it a resurrection of multiple exchange windows that allowed elite arbitrage while choking small businesses? Is it a return to leadership by inertia, where hard decisions are postponed for political comfort?

They speak of “hardship” as though hardship was invented in May 2023. Yet many of them were in power when: Over $22 billion in fuel subsidies went to politically connected cartels.

• Nigeria lost decades of oil windfalls with no savings, no working refineries, and no legacy infrastructure. Insecurity ravaged the North-East, and farmers fled their lands.

Where were these patriots when Boko Haram abducted hundreds of schoolgirls under their watch? When were public universities shut for months? When did exchange rates slip from ₦199 to ₦500 under a confused FX policy? They said nothing. They did nothing. And now they want to lecture Nigerians on hardship?

They lost the election, and now want to burn the country

Let’s not mince words. This coalition was defeated at the polls in 2023. Not because Nigerians did not hear them, but because Nigerians remembered them. Nigerians saw through their cosmetic populism and remembered their arrogance in power. And so, they chose a man, Bola Tinubu, who, despite his imperfections, presented the courage to dismantle what no other president dared to touch.

But these sore losers have refused to accept defeat. They first tried to delegitimise the elections. Then they attacked the judiciary. Now, they are inciting the public through emotional blackmail, amplifying every pain of reform without offering a single real solution.

Some of their surrogates have even issued veiled threats of disobedience, regional division, and insurrection. This is not opposition, it is sabotage. This is not patriotism; it is political terrorism clothed in the language of democracy.

Let us be clear: subsidy removal hurts. Floating the naira is painful. Inflation is real. But these are the birth pangs of a new Nigeria, not the symptoms of presidential wickedness. The previous model, fueling consumption with borrowed money, appeasing everyone with fake prices, and killing productivity, was never sustainable. Even those now shouting from rooftops knew it.

What President Tinubu has done is reset the system. In doing so, he has saved the country from ₦11 trillion in subsidy spending in 2024 alone; unified the exchange rate to encourage investment and end forex racketeering.

He is investing in infrastructure, transportation, and domestic refining capacity.

Are these enough? Not yet. But it is honest, bold, and fiscally sane. And for once, we have a leader willing to lose political capital to save the economy, unlike those who hoarded power and postponed the inevitable.

This coalition is dangerous not just for what it says, but for what it represents: the return of Nigeria’s most dangerous political virus, entitled elitism masked as mass advocacy. These are men who made peace with mediocrity when they had the keys to power. Now that they are out in the cold, they masquerade as saints.

Their real problem is not with hardship. Their real grievance is that the power door is closed, for now. They are fanning the embers of hatred, hoping for a public uprising not because they care about Nigerians, but because they want to sneak back through the smoke of chaos.

Their language is increasingly divisive, pitching North against South, poor against rich, ethnic group against ethnic group. They have no national vision. They only have national anger. And that is not leadership. That is sabotage.

A Message to Nigerians: Stay the Course

To Nigerians hurting from high costs and struggling incomes: your pain is real. But your patience is not in vain. Every country that rose from economic decay did so by passing through fire, not avoiding it. Ghana, Indonesia, and Egypt all undertook painful reforms. They faced protests and resistance. But today, they are better for it.

Nigeria cannot be different. We must stay the course. This is not the time for confusion. It is time for consolidation.

And to President Tinubu: speak more. Act faster. Spend wisely. Let the people see the fruits of your reforms, not just hear the promises. Build rail, fix roads, lift incomes, and fight corruption in your own house. Because Nigerians will not wait forever.

The coming years will test our unity, our discipline, and our resilience. But we must never allow disgruntled coalitions to hijack national reform. We must never trade long-term gain for short-term noise.

If we fall for emotional blackmail, we return to the slums of waste, deceit, and elite impunity. But if we stand together, leaders and citizens alike, Nigeria will rise from the ashes of subsidy addiction and claim its rightful place among prosperous nations.

Let the coalition of progress march forward. Let the coalition of bitterness dissolve into history.

This is our time. Let’s build, not burn.

 Prof Oluwadare, a Political Scientist, writes from the Department of Political Science, Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna