Surfing through my WhatsApp messages two days ago, a message popped in from Umar Dan-Sokoto, a contact based in Kaduna’s BirninGwari town. It was a short voice note and despite my aversion about the messaging format I didn’t hesitate clicking to listen. The voice message, he said, was a response to my interview he had listened to over the radio on the milestones recorded by the Tinubu administration. “But you have forgotten some significant achievements,” he remarked. “Just before this government came in, a measure of maize flour sold for N4,000; now it’s N2,000. At a point a bag of maize sold for up to N100,000. How much is it now?!” He asked rhetorically. But the pleasant answer is one that Dan-Sokoto and other Nigerians who patronise that staple food very much know.
Dan-Sokoto, who had previously narrated how life has changed in the hitherto embattled BirninGwari and its environs, further reiterated the continuous successes in stabilising his part of Nigeria. To the names I reeled out of high-profile bandits silenced for good, he added one Dogo Mai-Rasha, who, he said, was notorious around BirninGwari but was recently killed in combat somewhere in Niger State. I was jolted by these revelations because they represented genuine testament from down the ladder. It also vindicates that no matter what nay-sayers say, ordinary Nigerians follow and count their blessings.
No one denies that we had gone through tough times. But it amounts to dishonesty and even betrayal of God’s mercies if we do not acknowledge that we are witnessing a calm, after the storms. This administration came at a tough time but as the saying goes, when it gets tough only the tough gets going. And, indeed, unusual moments demand unusual actions.