In just over seven weeks’ time millions of Nigerians, like billions of other people around the world, will be looking forward to ushering in the New Year, hoping and praying that things will be better for them than what they went through this year.

Although I will never confess to being a soothsayer, however, so far all the indices available right now are not showing that things will radically improve in 2025 despite the repeated promises of government officials to the contrary.

Speaking in Lagos on Monday, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, insisted that President Bola Tinubu was aware that times are hard in the country.

The former senator said this while representing the President at the birthday service held in honour of the Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, who clocked 70.

Akume noted that the President was aware of the economic hardship in the country, but assured Nigerians that the country was on the right track.

“The President acknowledges that times are hard, but at the end of the tunnel, there is always light.

“And solutions to complex problems can never be as instant as coffee, but we are on the right track,” he said in Lagos.

Also speaking at the same event, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, echoed the same sentiments, calling for prayers and support for public servants. He emphasised that while the road ahead may be difficult, the country is led by tough leaders who are working hard to navigate the challenges.

“We in public service need all your prayers. These are tough times, but we are also tough men, and we know that at the end of the tunnel, there will be light,” Sanwo-Olu remarked.

Their comments came amid the myriad of economic challenges confronting Nigerians, which are the ripple effects of reforms introduced by the 18-month administration of Tinubu.

The reforms include the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira, which the Presidency has insisted were necessary decisions to revive the country’s economy.

These twin policies have seen the price of PMS jump from N187 to N1,025 (at NNPC Ltd outlets) while the exchange rate nosedived from N460 to over N1,700 to a dollar.

Of course, this has led to runaway inflation that is now hovering at 32.15 per cent – the highest in decades.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 133 million people in the country, or 63 per cent of the population, are multi-dimensionally poor. This means that they experience deprivations in more than one dimension, or in at least 26 per cent of weighted indicators.

Against this backdrop, most people believe that talk is cheap, and unless they start to see concrete improvement in their conditions there is nothing that Akume, Sanwo-Olu and others may say that will assuage their bitterness with the current administration, which they largely hold responsible for their present predicament.

Unfortunately for both men and other government apologists, for the eight years of Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, they were also given repeated doses of promises of better days ahead while the reality of their daily lives continued to head south.

Just like the present administration on taking over in May 2015, Buhari went about increasing the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), which is another name for fuel, insisting that it needed to be done in order to free up resources for government to spend on more ‘critical’ areas like infrastructure, health and other social services in order to improve the general wellbeing of the citizens.

Thus, while he met the price of PMS at N87/litre in 2015, he left it at N187 in 2019 and I’m not sure how many Nigerians would say their lives became better by then!

Many kilometres of roads are still in a mess, our hospitals are still no better while the education system is still up in the air with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) still threatening to go on strike, claiming that their demands have yet to be met by government, and the situation in our health sector is still appalling with hundreds of our doctors, nurses and other medical personnel leaving in droves, fed up with the situation in the land.

Unfortunately, while the gradual increases freed up more resources for the government, stories coming out now clearly indicate that the much of extra revenue found its way into the pockets of unscrupulous officials rather than the improvements in infrastructure and other social amenities as promised by the government.

Since the removal of the subsidy by the President last May the money available to all three governments – federal, state and local – has more than tripled, and yet the same old problems of poor infrastructure and social amenities still exist.

Yes, while some may say 18 months is not a long time, however, it is still enough time for some of the impact of more revenue to the government to have been felt by the citizens.

A fact pointed out by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), which has given state governments an ultimatum of December 1, to implement the new minimum wage among other things.

In a communiqué last Sunday signed by its President, Mr Joe Ajaero, the Congress also lamented the current situation in the country.

“Inflation continues to rise unchecked, with the costs of basic necessities spiralling beyond the reach of the average worker.

“Millions of Nigerians are being driven into destitution, forced to choose daily between feeding their families and seeking healthcare.

“Access to energy has become a mirage while workers become increasingly poorer even as they work longer hours to meet their other basic needs.

“As a result, nutritional diseases like kwashiorkor and Marasmus have resurfaced in Nigeria,” he said.

The NLC president, while calling for immediate, concrete interventions from the Federal Government, asked for the implementation of comprehensive social protection policies to shield Nigerians from poverty and ensure a proper living wage.

Despite the extra revenue many states and even the Federal Government owe retirees their pensions and gratuities running into trillions.

However, from all indications the present administration is not ready to move away from the path it has taken which it believes will eventually take the nation to the Promised Land.

But then, since the season of giving will soon be at hand, who knows if President Tinubu might want to give all of us a Christmas/New Year present by reducing the price of PMS – this will ensure that perhaps things will actually look up in 2025.