Previous President Muhammadu Buhari, Monday ended his quiet on the petroleum sponsorship evacuation 'challenge' that he left for his replacement, Bola Tinubu, saying that had the strategy been executed, the All Reformists Congress (APC) and Tinubu would have lost the last broad surveys.
Shehu claims that the statement was made in response to persistent inquiries from critics who have questioned why Tinubu removed the gasoline subsidy in just a few weeks while Buhari did not do so for several years.
He claims that subsequent polls indicated that the ruling party would have lost the 2023 election if the Petroleum Industry Act, which prohibits the use of gasoline subsidies, had not been enacted prior to that date.
In the statement titled “Buhari didn’t fail to remove subsidy “, Shehu wrote: “Why did it take the new Tinubu/ Shettima presidency weeks to remove the petrol subsidy when Buhari didn’t do so for years fails to ask the right question.
“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.
“So no, 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.
