Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant on media and publicity to the former President, Muhammadu Buhari has opened up on why the Buhari government did not outrightly remove fuel subsidy shortly before the last general elections in the country.
Speaking to newsmen today, June 26, in a chat, Garba Shehu stressed the need for people to be politically honest.
“The Buhari administration, in its last days, could not have gone the whole way (to remove the subsidy) because the APC had an election to win. And that would have been the case with any political party that was seeking election for another term with a new principal as its head.
“Poll after polls showed that the party would have been thrown out of office if the decision as envisaged by the new Petroleum Industry Act was made.”
The spokesman to the former President said that with the election now behind us, “a capable leader, as we now have in place, is best positioned to move forward.
“We have nothing but confidence that the new administration will carry the nation and all its constituents into a stable future in the aftermath of these major economic and financial decisions.
“As they say, there are times when you have to lose in order to win.”
Garba Shehu said that Nigerians might have forgotten too soon that when Buhari came to power in 2015, he met subsidies on fertiliser and other things.
“The massive electricity subsidy; the fraudulent fertilizer subsidy, Hajj/Christian Pilgrim subsidies – remember them?
“The diesel subsidy. The aviation fuel subsidy. LPFO, kerosene, cooking gas and the other subsidy policies we found in place, and put them firmly on the ground. Remember them?
“For those with short memories, many of those subsides were all in place when president Buhari was elected to office in 2015: all those in place were gone by May 2023 – including the annual fertilizer subsidy that weighed 60-100 billion Naira (that’s trillion naira in about 10 years – yes you read that right) heavy on the federal budget each year.
“Buhari didn’t remove the petrol subsidy – but in vitally important stages, he removed every other budget-busting, egregious, economic-growth-crushing subsidy along the way.”
He pleaded that the administration of Buhari would not want to distract the current government of Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima from the onerous tasks facing them and the nation.
“Neither is it our wish to take the spotlight away from them in any way.
“In terms of the timings of the decisions to remove fuel subsidy and unify the currency, the Tinubu/Shettima administration has done overwhelmingly well.
“Even more importantly, they have been most dexterous in managing the aftermath of the decisions by successfully avoiding any crisis.
“To this extent, our wish and prayers are that fellow countrymen will continue to support the new leadership in these very laudable decisions and, in particular, for the Labour leadership and civil society to work with them to ensure that the palliative efforts as promised are successfully implemented.”
