President Bola Tinubu says he has no regret in removing the
petrol subsidy.
During his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023, Tinubu announced
the removal of the petrol subsidy.
However, the cost of living and inflation soared after the
removal of the subsidy as the price of petrol moved from N190 to over N900 per
litre.
Speaking during his first presidential media chat on Monday,
the president said, “Nigeria was spending its future and was not investing”.
“We were spending the fortune of our future generations; we
were not investing,” he said.
“We were just deceiving ourselves. That reform was
necessary. Why should you have expenditures that we don’t have revenue for?
“We should teach management in all our programmes, we have
to manage our resources.
“There is no way you give out fuel and allow all the entire
neighbouring countries as Father Christmas. I don’t have regret whatsoever
removing the subsidy. It is necessary.
“We cannot spend our future generation investments upfront.”
Defending the president’s action, Mohammed Idris, minister
of information and national orientation, said the economy would have been worse
if the petrol subsidy had not been removed.
In October, Wale Edun, the minister of finance and
coordinating minister of the economy, said petrol subsidy costs Nigeria about
five percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
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