By a Political Analyst and Columnist, Pamela O.
Dear Madam First Lady,
You say those of us who cannot “see” your husband’s achievements should go and wear eyeglasses—perhaps the special “Bola Tinubu eyeglasses” from the old Jigi-Bola days.
With respect, that remark misses the point entirely.
I am not a politician. I am one of the millions of ordinary Nigerians who wake up every morning to the same harsh reality: empty pockets, rising prices that refuse to come down, insecure roads, and a cost of living that makes survival a daily struggle.
We do not need special lenses to measure progress. Real achievements do not hide. They announce themselves in the lives of the people.
If the economy is truly turning around, the market woman will feel it when the price of garri and rice stops climbing.
The civil servant will sense it when his salary can once again stretch beyond the 10th of the month.
The unemployed graduate will know it when jobs begin to appear. The parent will feel it when school fees and hospital bills no longer break the family. Even the blind man on the street can sense genuine improvement—he may not see the new airport terminal or the official statistics, but he can feel lighter traffic of hardship, lower prices of food, safer nights, and a little more hope in the air.
That is how real governance registers. It is not a visual spectacle reserved for those with the right pair of glasses.
It is a sensory experience that touches the skin, the stomach, and the spirit of the average citizen. When life gets better, people do not need to be told to “see” it. They feel it in their bones.
Madam, many of us are not blind to effort. We know reforms take time. We know inherited problems are heavy. But when the daily reality for the majority remains one of grinding hardship, telling us we simply need better eyesight sounds less like confidence and more like a refusal to confront what the people are actually living through.
Achievements that require special eyeglasses to be perceived are not yet achievements that have reached the people. When they do, even the blind will sense them.
Until then, the rest of us will continue to feel what is actually in front of us—clearly, painfully, and without any need for prescription lenses.
That is the simple truth from the street.
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