Senior Special Assistant Lere Olayinka Says Nigeria’s Economy Is Better Than Perceived by Gen Z
Olayinka argues that Nigeria has improved economically and technologically, urging young people to drop the “hunger” narrative.
Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Lere Olayinka, criticised the perception of some members of Generation Z about Nigeria’s economic situation, arguing that the country has improved compared with previous years.
Speaking in an interview uploaded by African Independent Television on Tuesday, Olayinka said many young Nigerians only began to appreciate the country’s economic realities when they became adults and had to provide for themselves.
He explained that while their parents catered for their needs as children, they now shoulder the responsibility of meeting their own needs. “That’s why people, a lot of the Gen Z generation now, because of what they have seen, because when they were growing up, and this is very funny, when they were growing up they didn’t know how Nigeria was. Their parents were providing for them. Now they have seen, they have to provide for themselves,” he said.
Olayinka also compared the country’s current technological environment with the challenges journalists faced in the past, arguing that technological advancement had made several activities easier and created new employment opportunities.
Recalling his experience in journalism, he said he used to travel by road from Bauchi to Jos to uplink reports, while video recordings had to be transported in VHS cassettes to television stations. He said technological advancement had changed the process, allowing people to create content and earn money through social media platforms without leaving their homes.
“Now, technology has even provided jobs for a lot of people. Things that were not available to us, growing up,” he said.
Olayinka urged Nigerians to move away from what he described as a persistent narrative of hunger, arguing that people were still building houses despite the economic challenges. “So let us not keep this mindset of telling people there’s hunger, there’s hunger, there’s hunger, there’s hunger. People are building houses now, today, as we are talking,” he said.
He also noted that homelessness existed in developed countries, adding that the government’s responsibility was to create an enabling environment for citizens. “The only thing the government can do is to provide enabling environment,” he added.
