Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said Nigeria will soon overcome the current socio-economic challenges facing it, adding that the Federal Government is doing its best to salvage the situation.
Jonathan, who was represented by the traditional ruler of the Abureni Clan in Bayelsa and Rivers states, Collins Daniel, stated this in Yenagoa on Friday while declaring open the Nigerian Bar Association’s Yenagoa Branch Law Week 2024 with the theme, ‘The legal profession in a time of socio-economic uncertainty’.
He commended the NBA, Yenagoa Branch, led by Somina Johnbull, describing the theme as apt in view of the present economic realities and that it was an opportunity for a reflection on general governance issues and the need to address them urgently for the wellbeing of the citizenry.
Jonathan stated, “May I also remind us that the present economic hardship ravaging this country is not limited to the legal profession as it pervades all professions and sectors, including the high and low?
“We therefore need collaborative efforts in finding solutions to it. Socio-economic uncertainty is not a new phenomenon in the human race. After the First World War, the world also suffered from economic hardship as a result of the economic depression that occurred around 1929–30. Nigeria was also not left out.
“Between 1984 and 1987, there were also economic challenges in Nigeria under General Ibrahim Badamasi Babagida’s administration, which led the Federal Government to introduce an economic recovery programme called the Structural Adjustment Programme, codenamed SAP.
“The country experienced a scarcity of essential commodities, and the citizens suffered severe hardship. God was with us, and the country bounced back.
“Between 2016 and 2019, the whole world went through another economic recession.
Nigeria also had her share of the hardship, but we were fortunate to be able to get out of the recession in a few years.”
Jonathan said the legal profession had credible, intelligent men and women, noting that the ingenuity of the profession in advocating for the common good and a better life for the underprivileged had been one of history.
