ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – President Bola Tinubu has begged Nigerians to be patient with him following the serious economic challenges that is currently rocking the country.
The Nigerian President made this appeal to the citizens of the country during a nationwide broadcast on Monday, 31 July, 2023, while asking them to share his vision of a better Nigeria regardless of the tough times.
He regretted that the nation’s economy is going through a rough patch, as Nigerians are being hurt by it. A development he said has made the cost of fuel to rise, food and other prices have followed it, households and businesses struggle.
“Things seem anxious and uncertain. I understand the hardship you face. I wish there were other ways. But there is not. If there were, I would have taken that route as I came here to help not hurt the people and nation that I love”, he said.
Speaking on the subsidy removal, he said Nigeria can never become good as long as some few selected groups continue to control the political economy.
“I have consistently maintained the position that the fuel subsidy had to go. This once beneficial measure had outlived its usefulness.
“The subsidy cost us trillions of Naira yearly. Such a vast sum of money would have been better spent on public transportation, healthcare, schools, housing and even national security. Instead, it was being funnelled into the deep pockets and lavish bank accounts of a select group of individuals.
“This group had amassed so much wealth and power that they became a serious threat to the fairness of our economy and the integrity of our democratic governance.
“To be blunt, Nigeria could never become the society it was intended to be as long as such small, powerful yet unelected groups hold enormous influence over our political economy and the institutions that govern it.
“The whims of the few should never hold dominant sway over the hopes and aspirations of the many. If we are to be a democracy, the people and not the power of money must be sovereign,” he said.
Speaking further, he noted that the preceding administration led by ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, saw this looming danger as well, noting that it made no provision in the 2023 Appropriations for subsidy after June this year.
Having promised to reform the economy for the long-term good of the Nation by fighting the major imbalances that had plagued our economy, President Tinubu said ending the subsidy and the preferential exchange rate system were key to this fight.
“Thus, the defects in our economy immensely profited a tiny elite, the elite of the elite you might call them. As we moved to fight the flaws in the economy, the people who grow rich from them, predictably, will fight back through every means necessary.
“What I can offer in the immediate is to reduce the burden our current economic situation has imposed on all of us, most especially on businesses, the working class and the most vulnerable among us,” he added.