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Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung has challenged supporters of the so-called economic reform policies of the Tinubu administration to show evidence that the political class is making sacrifices alongside ordinary Nigerians.
Dalung noted that defenders of the policies he dubbed “Tinubunomics” have consistently failed to answer one question: “what exactly has the political class sacrificed?”
He made the observation in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
“Every successful reform in history has been built on one principle: shared sacrifice,” Dalung stated.
“So I ask a simple question: what exactly has the political class sacrificed?”
Dalung listed the burdens borne by citizens since the removal of fuel subsidy and floating of the naira to include higher fuel prices, soaring food and transport costs, increased electricity tariffs, rising business operating costs, and eroded salaries and pensions due to inflation.
“Every Nigerian family can point to something they have lost. Can the political class do the same?” he asked.
The legal practitioner then questioned what privileges government officials have surrendered, asking: “Which constitutional privileges have they surrendered? Which unnecessary luxuries have they abolished? Which bloated political offices have they eliminated? Which convoys have they reduced? Which allowances have they voluntarily forfeited? Which fleets of luxury vehicles have they cancelled? Which extravagant foreign trips have they stopped?”
Instead, he said, citizens see “an expanding political bureaucracy, expensive government lifestyles, lavish official ceremonies, and billions appropriated for the comfort of public office holders,” while Nigerians are told to endure more pain.
“That is not merely an economic contradiction; it is a moral one,” Dalung said. “Governments do not earn public trust simply by publishing impressive macroeconomic statistics. They earn it when citizens can visibly see that their leaders are carrying the heavier burden.”
Dalung argued that “leadership is not asking people to suffer. Leadership is suffering first.”
“If subsidy removal was inevitable, then the first subsidy that should have disappeared was the subsidy on political extravagance. If austerity was necessary, then austerity should have started at the top,” he said.
He described the “tragedy of this administration” as asking Nigerians to sacrifice while “the governing class has largely insulated itself from the consequences of the very policies it champions.”
“No reform can command lasting legitimacy when the pain is socialised but the comfort remains exclusive,” the ex-minister added.
“Nigerians are not merely asking whether these reforms were necessary. They are asking a deeper question: Who has really paid the price?”
