A former Peoples Democratic Party presidential aspirant, Dr Abdul-Jhalil Tafawa Balewa, has urged Nigerians to be patient with President Bola Tinubu, saying he inherited a near-bankrupt nation but trying hard to put things right.

Mr Tafawa-Balewa spoke during an interview on Sunday in Lagos.

According to him, if a nation is near zero, rescuing it and setting it on a path of recovery is always hard.

He, however, said the President needed to do more to reposition the country and address its many challenges.

Mr Tafawa-Balewa urged Mr Tinubu to reduce the cost of governance to free up resources for development as a step towards putting things  right.

The politician also urged Mr Tinubu to strengthen his cabinet with technocrats that could help actualise his development agenda for Nigeria.

He said, “He (President) needs to be able to move with the times and put people that have moved out or have learned new technologies to be able to manage the different ministries. I think we have too many ministries, about 48, that need to be trimmed because a lot of money is being used to run these ministries. We just need to be able to prune the number of ministers.’’

Mr Tafawa-Balewa urged the President to work harder on security to end kidnappings, insurgency and other threats

“We have to improve our security so that our farmers can go to the farms. We are going to have a burst of food production. Without security, we cannot improve our food production right now. We also have technology for preservation and distribution of food.

“We have written many times about using the gamma radiation facility to be able to improve our food preservation and distribution but nobody wants to listen. We have one of the largest gamma radiation facilities in the world and definitely the largest in Africa. We are not using it,” Mr Tafawa-Balewa, a consultant nuclear chemist, specialises in food preservation.