The Chairman, Epe Local Government Council Area of Lagos State, Princess Surah Animashaun, has urged Nigerians not to lose faith in the administration of President Bola Tinubu because of the hardship they are facing, assuring that there is going to be light at the end of the tunnel.

Animashaun made the plea while fielding questions from journalists during an interactive session at the Council Secretariat, Ita-Marun, Epe, Lagos State.

She stated that Nigeria was not the only country facing hardship, thus it was a situation that equally affects other parts of the world, noting that the policies of the past administration contributed greatly to the hardship in the country.

The Chairman also blamed the 2008 global financial meltdown and other unavoidable calamities that affected the world, such as the coronavirus pandemic (covid-19).

She stated, “Nigerians over the years have been importing petrol. We had four refineries, and two were built in the 1960s in Port Harcourt. We have the Kaduna and the Warri refineries. These were built when Nigeria’s population was much smaller than what it is today.

“Today we have a population of about 250 million, which means the consumption of petrol has gone up, but we have not over the years been expanding our refining capacity, which made us to be importing more petrol as the price was going up globally.

Animashaun noted that there were different exchange rates for different purposes, which created room for arbitrary practices.

According to her, “Some people were getting allocation of foreign exchange of dollars, which they will not use to import the raw materials that industries require but, instead, will sell it in the market and just put the money in their pocket.

“So, President Tinubu closed the exchange rate so that we will have one exchange rate. While all this was going on, the activities of crypto currencies traders were undermining the system.

"There was, in particular, a crypto currencies exchange that was taking advantage of these reforms and was using the opportunity to launder money.

“People who had stolen money and had kept it here in Nigeria were using crypto currencies to take the money out, which meant that they were undermining the reforms that the Tinubu administration was carrying out and that of course led to further hardship."

The Chairman explained that the president had been doing a lot to reduce the current hardship in the country, with the distribution of palliatives to citizens and fertiliser, inputs, seedlings, and pesticides to farmers.

She stated that the reforms were something that the current administration had to do to safeguard the future of the country.