Nigeria, Oct. 20 -- Tinubu's Exodus and a Nation That Can No Longer Afford the Journey

When President Bola Tinubu told the City Boy Movement in Abuja, "You cannot ask Moses to go back to Egypt," he was defending his decision to remove the petrol subsidy and insisting that Nigeria must never return to the old arrangement. Drawing on the biblical story of Moses leading the Israelites out of bondage, he presented the removal as a necessary step towards a better future. But there is a question the President's metaphor leaves unanswered: what happens when the people being led out of Egypt begin to wonder whether life was better before they left?

Perhaps the President should listen to what Nigerians are actually saying. They are not necessar...