On Monday, Garba Shehu, a senior special assistant to Muhammadu Buhari, the immediately preceding president, claimed that if Buhari had eliminated the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, Bola Tinubu would not currently be the president.
Shehu noted that tensions were high and Buhari did not want to “add fuel to the fire” in a statement titled “Why did it take the new Tinubu/Shettima presidency weeks to remove the petrol subsidy when Buhari didn’t do so for years.” The statement was posted via his official Twitter account @garbashehu.
Shehu continued by pointing out that the APC needed to win the election and that Buhari could not have eliminated the subsidy in the final weeks of his presidency after eliminating other forms of aid like the petrol subsidy and the subsidies for Christian pilgrims making the hajj, among others.
Part of Shehu’s statement reads, “So far, I have refrained from responding to these repeated queries about the elimination of subsidies for Premium Motor Spirit, or PMS, in Nigeria as well as those resulting from the dual rates of the Naira in the Central Bank and the parallel market: Why did Buhari “fail” to accomplish these?
“First off, in my opinion, the All Progressives Congress, not the former President, is most prepared to respond to this topic. If we don’t do that, we are compelled to say what is going to be said next.
Second, we are aware that a Tinubu/Shettima presidency is currently in place, and that there is a “New Sheriff in Town.”
We don’t want to divert their attention from the difficult difficulties that the country and them are confronting. We also don’t want to diminish their importance in any manner.
The Tinubu/Shettima administration has performed remarkably well in terms of timing decisions to end fuel subsidies and reunite the currency. More importantly, they have been masterful at handling the fallout from the choices by averting any crises.
“The President should not have made the choice to end subsidies on his own, as was the case in our instance and, in our opinion, in all circumstances. Because of this, it’s critical to remind ourselves and everyone else who has conveniently forgotten that the Buhari administration had been on this course since the beginning of its term in 2015.
“The decision to stop providing subsidies for the Naira and PMS was cued. Take a look at the Petroleum Industry Act as an example. A better time was chosen to make the crucial decision. It could not have happened at a time when national emotions were high and no respectable leader would have fanned the flames.
“In the opinion of many—including those in the security circles—only a new administration with goodwill that fills a warehouse can do this, and now the wit and grit of the Tinubu government comes into play.
The last thing we need to do is be politically honest with ourselves. Because the APC needed to win the election, the Buhari administration was unable to complete its mission in its last hours.
And that would have applied to any political party that was running for re-election under a new leader.
“Poll after poll indicated that the party would have lost its seat in government if the choice envisioned under the new Petroleum Industry Act had been made.
With the election being behind us, we are best positioned to advance under a strong leader like the one we currently have. We are utterly confident that the new administration will steer the country and all of its citizens into a stable future following these significant economic and financial decisions.
