President Bola Tinubu said fuel subsidy cost Nigeria trillions of naira yearly, declaring that the vast sum of money would have been better spent on public transportation, healthcare, schools, housing as well as national security.
Tinubu in his Monday nationwide broadcast lamented: “Instead, it was being funnelled into the deep pockets and lavish bank accounts of a select group of individuals”.
“This group had amassed so much wealth and power that they became a serious threat to the fairness of our economy and the integrity of our democratic governance. To be blunt, Nigeria could never become the society it was intended to be as long as such small, powerful yet unelected groups hold enormous influence over our political economy and the institutions that govern it.
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“The whims of the few should never hold dominant sway over the hopes and aspirations of the many. If we are to be a democracy, the people and not the power of money must be sovereign” Tinubu asserted.
He revealed that the preceding administration saw”this looming danger as well. Indeed, it made no provision in the 2023 Appropriations for subsidy after June this year. Removal of this once helpful device that had transformed into a millstone around the country’s neck had become inevitable”.