President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said that the removal of petrol subsidy was a necessary and decisive action to ensure that Nigeria does not go bankrupt.
The President said this at the World Economic Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Sunday, where he also said that the floating of the Naira was necessary to remove the “artificial element of value” in the currency.
President Tinubu, while speaking at the Forum, said, “For Nigeria, we’re immensely consistent with our belief that economic collaboration and inclusiveness is necessary to engender stability… Concerning the question of the subsidy removal, there’s no doubt that it was a necessary action for my country not to go bankrupt (and) to reset the economy and the pathway to growth.
“It is going to be difficult, but the hallmark of leadership is taking difficult decisions at the time it ought to be taken, decisively. That was necessary for the country.
“Yes, there will be blowback, there is expectation that the difficulty in it will be felt by a greater number of the people, but to us, I believe it was their interest, that is the focus of the government. It is easier to manage and explain the difficulties.
“Luckily, we have a very vibrant, youthful population interested in discoveries by themselves and highly ready for technology, good education, committed to growth. We were able to manage and partition the economic drawback and the fallout of the subsidy removal.
“Equally, it has engendered transparency, accountability and fiscal discipline for the country. And that, to me, is more important to focus on what direction we should go, and we pursued that rigorously.
“The currency management was necessary equally to remove the artificial element of value in our currency. Let our local currency find its level and compete with the rest of the world’s currency and remove arbitrage, corruption, and opaqueness. That we did at the same time, that’s a two-engine problem in a very turbulent situation for the government, but we were able to manage that turbulence because we prepared for inclusivity in governance and rapid communication with the public to really see what is necessary and what you must do.”
The President then said that it’s important for the World Economic Forum to encourage collaboration and inclusiveness. “Today’s forum is equally valuable for us to share experiences and share the hope of the future. And I’m glad the Kingdom relies on world collaboration and inclusiveness. The capital formation that is necessary to drive the economy like agriculture, food security, innovation, technology advancement must be an inclusive programme of the entire world.
“No one should be left behind. The fear of lack of capital in Africa, stigmatisation… I am glad the world is recognising the need that the type of population growth that Africa experiences, the diversity of its resources must be married with its economic opportunity. We must collaborate to do that, and that is what we are doing so far.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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