Garba Shehu, former aide to former president Muhammadu Buhari has given reasons why the president did not remove fuel subsidy during his administration from 2015 to 2023.
Following this statement, Politics Nigeria highlights the five reasons the former presidential aide cited
Here are the reasons:
- Buhari didn’t remove fuel subsidy because his party, All Progressives Congress, APC had an election to win.
- Buhari did not remove petrol subsidy because he removed every other budget-busting, egregious, economic-growth-crushing subsidy along the way.
- Buhari kept the decision for a better time.
- Buhari did not want to distract the onerous tasks facing Tinubu/Shettima.
- Buhari tried not to remove it at a time when tensions were high in the country, and no responsible leader would have added fuel to the fire.
Meanwhile, before he won the 2015 presidential election, President Muhammadu Buhari led the opposition party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), in grand opposition to the removal of petrol subsidy.
His contention then was that there was no subsidy on petrol and that the government under President Goodluck Jonathan was corrupt and was looking for ways to enrich themselves at the expense of the Nigerian masses fraudulently.
Eight years later, Buhari left the country with the highest amount spent on subsidizing petrol in Nigeria’s history.
