Akinrogun Olusegun Osoba, living journalism legend, former two-term Governor of Ogun State, and a respected national leader in the country, on Tuesday, defended President Bola Tinubu’s seven months old administration by highlighting the booby trap set on his government’s path by the administration of his predecessor in office, General President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to the elder statesman, while speaking on Arise Television’s ‘The Morning Show’ programme on Tuesday, this necessitated some of the bold reforms embarked upon by Tinubu.

He, however, stated that Nigerians had scaled the worst of the economy in 2023 while enjoining them to look forward to a robust well-being in 2024.

According to Osoba: “When the treasury was empty and the last administration was borrowing to pay salaries, the whole place was empty. What else can you do other than in the meantime, borrowing to fill the gap?

“That does not mean that the culture of borrowing will go on forever. You met an empty treasury. There was nowhere to turn other than to still engage in a bit of borrowing. After the first year in office, the whole thing will be reviewed, and we will see.

“Talking of borrowing, when your pocket is empty, you have to go to your bank to shore you up for some time. It depends on how you manage that situation.

“I have explained to you that we are lucky, but by June 1, the whole system was set up to totally collapse. I’m telling you if he (Tinubu) didn’t go the way the government had to go (things would have collapsed),” Osoba disclosed.

Osoba reaffirmed his confidence in Tinubu’s government and this he stated was a consequence of the sincerely robust discussions he had with him in the dying days of 2023 where the president expressed sadness about the ongoing tough situation in the country.

The journalism doyen confidently informed Nigerians about President Tinubu’s empathy: “He is a listening person. I had quality time with him on Christmas day and even my grandson engaged him in discussion and the young boy was very honest with him and told him some of the things that were going on.”

“I have reasonable confidence that year 2023 is going to be perhaps the worst of the years we have ever had. Starting from that, I strongly believe the year 2024 will be the beginning of the year of the president’s renewed hope.

“I do agree that things are very tough for everybody, irrespective of status in society. But there is nobody in this country, who is not feeling the pain and the current hardship. That I will admit, that I will not pretend not to know.

“But I can tell you that the government at the same time is struggling very hard to contain the hardship and reduce the pain,” the elder statesman further said.

The former managing director of old Daily Times explained why Tinubu hadn’t visited Plateau state. He stated that it was regrettable that many people were killed in that state but maintained that Tinubu was committed to solving the problems from the roots, insisting that the ‘issue of token appearance’ shouldn’t erode his empathy for victims of that dastardly act.

He added that by the time the president visits, he should be able to tell the people the steps he had taken or was taking to solve the problems.

On subsidy removal, Osoba believes the president’s courage is commendable in this regard even though he acknowledged the challenges posed by the decision.

“There is hardship. There are problems. But we expected it because, at the time that President Bola Tinubu assumed office, there was not a single allocation for oil subsidy.

“The previous administration did not allocate a kobo from May 30 for oil subsidy. What else did you expect from Tinubu when he could not go outside the Act? The law is there.

“Not one kobo allocation. He had no choice but to pronounce the removal of subsidy because he would have breached the law immediately he was sworn in if he continued with the subsidy,” Osoba pointed out.

He continued: “…..what you can say about him is that he exhibited great courage to have taken such very painful, very hard decisions.

“We were virtually subsidising the economy of all our neighbouring countries. smuggling was thriving heavily. They didn’t even have room for one kobo for capital expenditure.”

Tinubu’s empathy for Nigerians is never in doubt, Osoba assures when he stated: “I can tell you he (Tinubu) is in pain. And when I talk to him, I can see the pain in him,” he concluded.