President Bola Tinubu has been enjoined to reconsider implementation of his economic policies and reforms in a way that will not plunge Nigerians into more hardship.

Pastor Tunde Bakare of Citadel Global Community Church, Lagos (former Latter Rain Assembly), made the call yesterday, with specific reference to a rash of policies the Tinubu administration had sought to implement since assuming power, and a later contemplation on introducing palliatives to cushion the harsh effects.

Bakare stressed that given the complexity of the Nigerian economy, he was not convinced the palliatives being considered would be sufficient to cushion effects of the President’s policies on citizens. He suggested, rather than rush to implement policies that would further impoverish Nigerians, the President should go all out to kill corruption entrenched in the polity.

In a state of the nation broadcast with the theme, ‘Vice, virtue and time: the three things that never stand still,’ Bakare said President Tinubu should have been more circumspect with some of his economic reforms, which have unwittingly plunged the nation into chaos by a very poor change management process.

He said it was in the best interest of the nation for Tinubu to always consider intended and unintended consequences before committing to a course of action.

“Let us consider the cost of just one impulsive action to Nigerians in the past few months. Even as the President, in his July 31 address, celebrated the N1 trillion reportedly saved from subsidy removal, what he did not tell Nigerians is the cost of his approach to the Nigerian economy.

According to the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), about four million Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country have shut down in the two months since the subsidy removal was announced. This is even as jobs have been lost and households have been thrown into disarray due to a poorly managed policy,” he said.

While identifying with the masses, whom he noted are often unceremoniously described as “ordinary Nigerians” or “average Nigerians,” Bakare said the Nigerian citizen had, for long, borne the brunt of capricious policies of political actors and greed of a colluding elite.

“From a wrongly implemented naira redesign policy to an impulsive fuel subsidy removal announcement, from a drowning of purchasing power in an attempt to float the naira to an unbearable increase in the cost of basic amenities, the past and recent months have been particularly excruciating for the Nigerian citizen,” he said.

He reminded the President that the purpose of his government was not to serve cronies, pander to corrupt business interests; patronise a consumptive political class or appease neo-colonial foreign powers but to serve Nigerians.

The former All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential aspirant urged Tinubu to refocus on killing pervasive corruption in the country and not Nigerians.

He said: “Mr. President, if you are truly on the side of the poor, if you are serious about the welfare of the people, if you truly want the poor to breathe, as you once said, then kill corruption, not Nigerians.”