Former Kwara State governorship aspirant Sunday Adebayo Babalola has urged Nigerians not to be despondent due to the current challenges in the country.

He said that things would be better in the country. He urged the citizens and other residents not to despair in the face of the current hunger, insecurity, poverty, and unemployment.

In an interview with journalists, yesterday, Babalola said that President Bola Tinubu’s administration should not be held responsible for the national challenges, adding that the problems started with previous administrations and regimes.

He said: “My rating of Nigeria is that we have not done well. Let us keep seeing what they are doing. I have made public my stand concerning certain things, like the petroleum subsidy. I knew it would bring hardship. But it is the best thing. Today, the state governments have more money, which some of them are not using well, but that’s not the problem of the Federal Government.”

Babalola, who also stated that he knew that exchange rate harmonisation would bring some hardship, said: “In both cases that I mentioned, businessmen are smiling to the banks.”

I knew they would bring hardship in those areas, but I can assure you that those policies will eventually make the country better.

“There are many other policies that the Federal Government has put its hands to do, which, in my candid opinion, will eventually benefit the people, even though they may suffer in the current time.”

According to him, the current economic hardship is not solely caused by the administration of Tinubu because the economy had been broken down since 1999, adding: “Is it Tinubu that spoiled Nigeria Airways? Nigeria Airways was destroyed before even 1999. So, is it Tinubu that stopped the depots from working? Depots that were created by the military. They were all broken before that time. It will take time to repair those pipelines.

“Is it Tinubu that spoiled the power sector? Power has broken down because people were not doing what they needed to do. It will take time to revamp the sector. It is very easy to demolish a house in one day, but building or rebuilding that house will definitely take some time. It won’t be one day, no matter how fast you are.”

According to him, Nigerians need to make sacrifices to rebuild the damaged economy and make things better. He also called on the government to tackle pervasive insecurity in the land, expressing his confidence that the government could do it.