Former President Muhammadu Buhari has revealed why his administration did not remove fuel subsidy.
The president disclosed this through his former spokesman, Garba Shehu.
According to Shehu, only a new administration with goodwill that fills a warehouse could attempt to remove fuel subsidy.
He disclosed this in a statement via his verified Twitter handle on Monday.
He added that in its last days, Buhari’s administration could not have done away with the controversial policy because the All Progressives Congress, APC, had an election to win.
Shehu made this known in response to critics’ persistent queries about why it took Tinubu only weeks to remove the petrol subsidy, whereas, Buhari didn’t do so for several years.
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.’
