Former presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu said that Muhammadu Buhari had delayed the elimination of the country’s fuel subsidies and the unification of its foreign exchange rates “for a better time.”
Four weeks after President Bola Tinubu succeeded Buhari, Shehu announced this in a statement on Monday. He said: “Removing subsidies for the Naira and PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) was cued and placed on hold. Take the Petroleum Industry Act as an illustration. The crucial choice was postponed until later.
“It could not have come at a time when tensions were high in the country and no responsible leader would have added fuel to the fire.”
A new administration with “goodwill that fills a warehouse can attempt” such, according to the former presidential spokesman, given the unstable security environment of the nation during Buhari’s tenure as president of Nigeria between May 2015 and May 2023.
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Shehu added that if the Buhari administration had been “politically honest,” it would not have been able to implement the revolutionary changes “because the APC had an election to win” in its final days in office.
He claimed that if the decision to remove the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as fuel, had been made, the ruling party would have been removed from power.
“Now that the election is over, we are in the best position to move forward with a capable leader in place as we currently have. In the wake of these significant economic and financial decisions, we have complete faith that the new administration will lead the country and all of its citizens towards a stable future,” Shehu concluded.
He praised the timing of the Tinubu administration’s decisions to end the petrol subsidy and standardise foreign exchange rates, claiming that the President and Vice President Kashim Shettima have performed “overwhelmingly well” and have been “most deft in managing the aftermath of the decisions by successfully avoiding any crisis.”
