By Seyi Babalola
Dele Momodu, publisher of Ovation Magazine, said he was left shocked by President Bola Tinubu’s speech to the country on Sunday morning.
In a post on X, Momodu said that the President had failed to meet the demands of continuing demonstrators around the country.
Tinubu spoke to Nigerians on Sunday, three days after the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protests began.
The protesters had made several demands, including a return of fuel subsidies, improvements in living standards, cuts in the cost of governance, reduction in electricity tariffs, and solutions to escalating insecurity, among others.
Reacting to Tinubu’s broadcast, Momodu said, “After the long-awaited speech of President Bola Tinubu eventually came this morning, I’m sure most of you would be as stupefied as me.
“I must confess that I had little hope of Tinubu granting some concessions to the aggrieved Nigerians. As a man who has held an iron grip on Lagos State for the last 25 years, it would be difficult for him to change a winning formula that has worked for him ever since.
“Also, what did we expect his advisers to be telling him when most of them have been his most fanatical cronies from Lagos who have learnt never to challenge the master?
“So it was merely wishful thinking on the part of incurable optimists like me to think he was going to have mercy on hapless and seemingly helpless Nigerians.”