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For years, Nigerians have been told to wait for change, to be patient and trust that things will get better. But as the years go by, the promises remain unfulfilled, and the struggles persist. From skyrocketing inflation to endemic corruption, the wait for a better life seems endless.
Nigerians have waited, but what did they get? Corruption on an industrial scale, poverty multiplied in million folds, insecurity at its peak, persistent rise in the price of goods and services, and industrial actions, especially months of ASUU strike.
Were they foolish to wait? Maybe not, they believed that he knew what he was saying, and knew what to do.
Are Nigerians still waiting? Well, yes, again. After all, BAT did say that he will continue from where PMB stopped.
 Today, Nigerians are hungrier than ever imagined, unemployment is at a staggering rate, inflation is threatening our existence, corruption has exacerbated, and insecurity has now become the order of the day, with kidnapping becoming a lucrative enterprise. The price of everyday essentials has skyrocketed, with a packet of spaghetti, for instance, increasing from about ₦100 in 2015 to a staggering ₦1,000 today that is a tenfold increase, one among so many commodities that have become luxuries for the masses.
Nigeria’s economic woes persist, with the country’s inflation rate soaring to a 24-year high of 31.7 per cent  as of February 2024, according to the World Bank. The economy is projected to grow at a modest annual rate of 3.5 per cent  between 2023 and 2026, but this growth is unlikely to benefit the millions of Nigerians struggling to make ends meet. The poverty rate is estimated to have reached a staggering 38.9 per cent  in 2023, with a staggering 87 million people living below the poverty line. This no doubt is a far cry from the promises of prosperity and development made by the country’s leaders, and Nigerians are still wondering if they will ever see the change they were promised
For a country with the highest rate and form of multidimensional poverty in the world, the very things that the poor enjoy; fuel, electricity, education subsidies, among others, have been taken away, with no commensurate replacement. Yet, public officials, elected and appointed alike, continue to enjoy our commonwealth with no sense of responsibility and goodwill. Only few are accountable and transparent, but the rest, the majority, continue to divert and siphon public funds, while the masses continue to suffer and cry.
The citizens, journalists especially, who are speaking out today are being rounded up by agents of the state, and no one can even ask the uncomfortable questions that will take us away from this viscous circle of poverty and underdevelopment.
The wait for a better Nigeria has gone on for far too long. The promises of prosperity and development have been nothing but empty words, leaving the masses to suffer and cry. And so, we’ve been told to wait, to be patient, to trust that things will get better.
16 years of the PDP went by, with several promises, and nothing significant to show, apart from massive corruption and terrifying insecurity. In 2015, Muhammadu Buhari told us to wait for it. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu says we should be patient. Nigerians are still waiting, but I am not sure how much more they can wait.
The current situation is akin to a keg of gunpowder stored in very hot conditions, and the government must take drastic steps to stem the tide.
Perez, who is a Political Science lecturer and public affairs analyst, writes from Ibadan