Despite repeated claims by top figures of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms are already producing tangible results, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Barrister Felix Morka, has offered a more cautious view.
Speaking to journalists on Thursday at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja, Morka admitted he could not say when Nigerians would begin to feel the impact of the president’s policies.
“The child is crawling. Now, I don’t know what age. I can’t say,” he remarked, likening the current stage of Tinubu’s reforms to that of a toddler learning to move.
He elaborated further, “I think it varies from one child to the other. Some kids are faster than the others. So they crawl quicker than some. But irrespective of the time they crawl, they crawl. Children crawl and children are meant to crawl before they walk… if that’s your child, I think you should encourage the child to crawl.”
His analogy comes in stark contrast to the upbeat tone struck by APC leaders such as Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas, APC National Chairman Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, and Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma, who had all recently declared at a national summit that Tinubu’s policies were already bearing fruit.
But Morka, appearing less certain, stressed the importance of patience.
On the controversial issue of fuel subsidy removal, Morka defended the President’s decision, stating that it was a long-overdue move.
“All the presidents who came before this president preferred to simply postpone the doomsday. Because we didn’t just wake up in the last two years to realise that fuel subsidy was a destructive device in our country. We didn’t,” he said.
He also dismissed claims that the APC had launched a re-election campaign for Tinubu, clarifying that mere endorsements should not be mistaken for political campaigning.
Addressing Nigeria’s security challenges, the APC spokesman described insecurity as a “global phenomenon,” and acknowledged it as a longstanding issue:
“Insecurity is a challenge that we face as a country, especially over the last 20 years.”
