The incumbent President, Bola Tinubu, would not have won if the immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari, had eliminated the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, according to Garba Shehu, a Senior Special Assistant to Buhari.
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.
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Shehu continued by pointing out that the APC needed to win the election, therefore Buhari was unable to eliminate the subsidy in the last weeks of his presidency after already eliminating the diesel subsidy and the subsidies for Christian and Hajj pilgrims, among other subsidies.
He said;
So far I have refrained from answering these repeated questions on the removal in Nigeria of subsidies on Premium Motor Spirit, PMS and that arising from the dual rates of the Naira in the Central Bank and the parallel market: Why did Buhari “fail” to do these?
First of all, my thinking is that instead of the former President answering this question, it is the Party, the All Progressives Congress that is best suited to speak and failing to do this, we are forced to say what will follow here.
Secondly, we are mindful of the fact that with a Tinubu/Shettima presidency now in place and for which there is a “New Sheriff in Town.
We do not want to distract them from the onerous tasks facing them and the nation. Neither is it our wish to take the spotlight away from them in any way.
In terms of the timings of the decisions to remove fuel subsidy and unify the currency, the Tinubu/Shettima administration has done overwhelmingly well. Even more importantly, they have been most dexterous in managing the aftermath of the decisions by successfully avoiding any crisis.
Shehu further explained;
The important decision was kept for a better time. It could not have come at a time when tensions were high in the country and no responsible leader would have added fuel to the fire.
In the view of many-including those in the security circles- only a new administration with goodwill that fills a warehouse can attempt this, and here now comes the wit and grit of the Tinubu government.
Finally, we must be politically honest with ourselves. The Buhari administration in its last days could not have gone the whole way because the APC had an election to win.
And that would have been the case with any political party that was seeking election for another term with a new principal at its head.
