Femi Adesina, special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, has disclosed that he took a pay cut to join the current administration.
Appealing to Nigerians not to lose hope in the government, the former managing director of The Sun Newspaper said he is not immune from the hardship in the land.
He attributed the economic crisis to mismanagement on the part of previous administrations, but said very soon, the people would have course to rejoice.
The presidential aide said his principal had not forgotten the promises he made during the campaign period.
Adesina said this in an article entitled: ‘After Ye Have Suffered A While’. It was published on the back page of The Sun.
“Here comes the preacher. What does he want to tell us? Doesn’t he know that we are hungry, and the din of hunger makes one deaf to reason? The rumble in our tummies, as the worms compete for the little food left there, will surely be louder than what anybody can say now. True? Not exactly. Come, let us reason together,” he wrote.
“Father Ejike Mbaka, that fearless priest of the Catholic church, gave an illustration recently, which I believe was not revealed to him by flesh and blood. There is hunger in the land, with people severely famished. And there is ululation, loud enough to deafen the deaf all over again, and wake the dead from his eternal sleep. The wailers are wailing so loud, as if Bob Marley had resurrected with his band, the Wailing Wailers. But hear Fr. Mbaka: somebody came, looted your kitchen, carried away all the food.
“He did not even leave you crumbs to console yourself with. And then comes another person, trying to replenish your pantry, trying to restock your kitchen. And then you begin to shout; we are hungry o, we are hungry o, to the point of distracting and discouraging the new man. Who should you rather wail and rage against? The man that looted your kitchen, of course.
“That is the exact similitude of the position of Nigeria. There is hunger, lack, and deprivation in the land. But is it a death knell? Not when the kitchen is being restocked, and we will soon feed till we want no more.
“I am on a national assignment that has cut my legitimate annual income by one third, so when there is hunger in the land, I go hungry too. Well, almost. When people talk of lack of money, I penny-pinch, too.
“Well, almost. Let nobody think those in government are insulated from what is happening in the country. At least, those who have truly come to serve. But those precious promises hold true any day. ‘In the days of famine, my people shall be satisfied.’ ‘The young lion may lack, and suffer hunger, but those that trust in the Lord shall not suffer any good thing.’”