THE Vice Chairman of Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Adeola Olamilekan Solomon has called on Nigerians to exercise patience and trust in the President Muhammadu Buhari’s led administration.

Besides, Barrister Olumide Braithwaite, a politician and former secretary of the defunct National Advance Party (NAP) has called on Nigerians to have patience with the present administration and should only engage in constructive criticisms that can make positive impact on good governance.

The Senator commended some of the far-reaching steps that the administration has taken within the last few months that it came into office “as right steps in the right direction to redeem most of the atrocities done to the nation’s economy in the past.

According to him, “Such bold steps would require a lot a patience, perseverance and trust. I am sure of the administration’s honesty and commitment.”

Senator Solomon, who represents Lagos West Senatorial district on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), over the weekend urged Nigerians never to lose sleep or allow the rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) influence them against a government that is sincerely working towards reviving the economy of the country and putting the nation on the right part in the nearest future.

Speaking on the fuel subsidy controversies, the lawmaker said, “It is cumsi cumsa, there is a school of thought that, the fuel subsidy is being used to enrich some set of people, those who believes that let us remove it once and for all, so that any saving from the fuel subsidy can be channeled towards some developmental projects across the country.

“I belong to the school of thought that said they should not remove fuel subsidy in the past, because of the untold hardship Nigerians were suffering under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), then there was nothing to write home about, and you would agree with me that, when there was partial removal of fuel subsidy, a lot of promises were made to Nigerians, of palliative measure through the SUREP program, but what do we have, we have more untold hardship on the citizenry.

“Now that we have a government in place that is more focused, who is more committed and dedicated, and who is ready to rise to the challenges of Nigerians, if fuel subsidy is removed at this point in time, I think we are not taking the wrong step in the right direction, rather we are taking the right step in the right direction, because we have a government that we can have some level of trust, who has promised us change, and the government who for the first time, is taking the federal budget from an average of N4.6 trillion to N6.8 trillion. If Nigerians could just trust at least for a year and see what the government can do with the removal of the fuel subsidy, it will go a long way to alleviate the challenges and the problems already confronting Nigeria.

“What the President has said in his budget speech is that fuel should remain at N87 per litre, though, no provision in the budget this year for subsidy, he has insisted that, the price of petrol should remain at N87 per litre. If all the bottlenecks can be removed, don’t forget that price per barrel of oil is 30 dollars, as against 54 dollars, which was what the last administration primed its budget on.

“The more the price of oil goes down the lesser the pump price of fuel at the filling stations; at N87 per litre for now is the right step in the right direction, all what Nigerians should pray for is, let us have a government that will for once take them serious, listen to them, and do what they believe is their needs and yearnings as far as they are concerned as citizens of this country.”

On the introduction of Treasury Single Account (TSA), the Vice Chairman Senate Committee on Communication said that is why we are calling and craving for diversification of the economy.

According to him, “When the economy is diversified the problem would be solved. What is happening now is that government is the biggest business in Nigeria, and until we change that orientation, until we take that off our table, Nigerians will continue to find themselves in this kind of untold hardship they have found themselves.

“All I can profess now is, to focus more on the diversification of the economy, so that we can have a public/private sector that is truly independent that can provide jobs, that can provide businesses on their own without necessarily looking up to government. That is what is obtainable in other parts of the world.”

He posited that TSA has nothing to do with us, it is about Federal Government’s money, it is about Federal Government expenditure, what we are simply saying is this, let the Federal Government have their money for whatever it want to use it for, let the Commercial Banks do what they need to do to get more money into the system. But above all to diversify the economy, they have to bring in more micro economy, rather than macro economy, so that with that, we can shore up the economy, we can confront the economic challenges that we are having, the TSA will not be an issue in developing our nation.”

In his assessment of the year 2015, the lawmaker said it was a unique and wonderful year in which tremendous development came to the nation.

To him, “The peaceful and successful conduct of the 2015 general elections was a remarkable event in the history of Nigeria where an incumbent president was defeated and change of government took place without blood letting.”

BRAITHWAITE, a legal practitioner and former aspirant for the Lagos Central Senatorial District on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 elections gave the advice during the family thanksgiving celebration at St Paul‘s Church Breadfruit Lagos recently. He pointed out that President Buhari’s administration is still young and needed some time to find it’s bearing.

He appealed to the people not to blame the current administration since some of problems were inherited from the previous governments. “They should be patient with government despite dwindling economy and security challenges, and look up to God Almighty for his guidance.”

He also stressed the need for Nigerians irrespective of the religion and political party affiliations to support the administration to succeed while the government should not be distracted by the present challenges because God will continue to see Nigerians through its challenges.

However, Braithwaite urged the government to revisit and apply some of the recommendations of the National Constitutional conference from the immediate past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan as well as effect changes in the Nigerian Constitution through constitutional amendment.

The lawyer also urged the citizens to be confident in Buhari’s leadership, expressing the hope that Nigeria would attain political and civil stability, economic progress with improved living standards and other developmental stride.