Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike said on Thursday that Nigeria’s economic challenges cannot be resolved as quickly as treating an ill person, arguing that some reforms require time to produce results.
Wike made the comments in Abuja as he was inducted into the Idoma Hall of Fame, where he also pointed to what he described as the benefits of ending Nigeria’s fuel subsidy.
He said public attention had focused largely on areas where government action was still insufficient, while overlooking gains linked to the subsidy removal. “We keep discussing the areas the government has not addressed, but no one is talking about what removing the subsidy has achieved for the people,” he said.
Wike said labour unrest had been more frequent in previous years, citing recurring strikes by the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, teachers and university workers. He said that, over the past three years, such industrial actions had become far less common, adding that pensioners were no longer raising strike-related concerns.
While acknowledging that households are under pressure from the rising cost of living, he said policymakers could not fix every economic issue simultaneously. Some problems, he said, would inevitably take longer to address.
“We are focused only on the high cost of living, and we agree that it is a problem, but everything cannot be solved at once,” Wike said. “Repairing the economy is not like curing someone who is sick. It does not work that way.”
