“President Tinubu wins 2024 Man Of The Year Award” of a Nigerian Newspaper {SEE WHY}

By KEMI KASUMU

The Will, however, surprised many when, by interpretation, its position justifying the award turned out to be that it was presenting the President as one, under whose administration Nigerians have witnessed the kind of pains-stricken economic reforms no society has ever seen before, let alone Nigeria.

President Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu has been named as choice of a Nigeria’s newspaper, The Will, for its 2024 Man of the Year Award amidst incessant hardship under his administration since it came on board over one and a half years ago.

Tinubu’s policies have been blamed for the economic hardship and hunger that Nigerians have witnessed with many linking the systemic failure with why 35 children in Ibadan, Oyo State, 10 adults in Abuja and 20 mixture of able men, women and children in Okrika, Anambra State had to stampede themselves to death over rush for food at Christmas.

The newspaper stated not only that Tinubu is most deserving of the award but also that the decision to honour the President with it was unanimous among its editorial team.

The Will, however, surprised many when, by interpretation, its position justifying the award turned out to be that it was presenting the President as one, under whose administration Nigerians have witnessed the kind of pains-stricken economic reforms no society has ever seen before, let alone Nigeria.

According to them, the president’s reform policies over the past year have profoundly impacted Nigerians in ways unseen in recent history.

The newspaper wrote in its editorial: “President Tinubu’s reform policies in the past one year have significantly impacted every Nigerian negatively, old or young in business, employed or unemployed as never before in the country’s recent history.

“Government’s removal of subsidy and floating of the local currency, the Naira delivered a big blow to the already fragile economy as the resultant increase in fuel prices drove logistics and the prices of food items through the roof.

“Nigeria’s annual inflation rate jumped to 34.60 percent in November, from 33.88 percent recorded in October, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in its latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report last Monday.

“According to the Bureau, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.40 percentage points higher than the 28.20 percent rate recorded in November 2023.

“This shows that the year-on-year headline inflation rate increased in November 2024, compared to the same month in the preceding year of November 2023.

“For the yearly average Consumer Price Index, CPI, the result shows an increase. It said the percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months ending November 2024 over the average for the previous twelve-month period was 32.77 percent, showing 8.76 per cent points increase, compared to 24.01 per cent recorded in November 2023. The yearly Urban/ Rural inflation rate is also high.

“In November 2024, the urban inflation rate was 35.07 percent, indicating 9.62 percentage points higher compared to the 25.45 percent recorded in November 2023. Rural inflation rate average in November 2024 was 30.71 percent on a year-on-year basis. This was 8.00 percentage points higher, compared to the 22.71 percent recorded in November 2023.

“According to the Bureau, the rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of Yam, Water Yam, Coco Yam, etc (Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers Class), Guinea Corn, Maize Grains, Rice, etc (Bread and Cereals Class), Beer, Pinto (Tobacco Class), and Palm Oil, Vegetable Oil, etc (Oil and Fats Class).

“On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in November 2024 was 2.98 percent, which shows a 0.05 percentage point increase compared to the 2.94 percent recorded in October 2024.

For the past one year, therefore, Nigerians across all social strata, business and professional calling, have felt the pain and hardship of the ongoing reforms.

“Little wonder, many of them took to social media to deploy the moniker T-Pain (Tinubu Pain) in describing the harsh realities of government’s reform policies, though his media handlers rechristened it Temporary Pain while National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, says it should actually be T-Gain (Tinubu Gains).”