Buhari Would Have Breached Apc’s Agreement With Nigerians If Subsidy Wasn’t Removed – Tinubu

SAN FRANCISCO, May 13, (THEWILL) – National leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has explained that the failure of the Muhammadu Buhari administration to remove the subsidy on petrol would have amounted to a breach of the agreement which the ruling party had with Nigerians during the 2015 electioneering period.

Speaking in a statement issued by his media office on Friday, the former Lagos governor urged Nigerians to see the difficulties they might encounter as a result of the recent increment in the pump price of petrol as a sacrifice for a better future, stressing that “this pain is necessary”.

The politician, who is accused of hypocrisy in some quarters having mobilized Nigerians to demonstrate against same policy when it was effected by the Jonathan administration in 2012, explained that “We all want fuel at a cheaper price under the subsidy; we got the right price but not the fuel.”

While commending President Buhari for taking “a bold step”, he said; “I would be lying if I said this will cause no pain or dislocation. However, it will stabilise supply and end the costs associated with long waits and delays for fuel. The days and hours of waiting for fuel will be a thing of the past.

“As originally envisioned, subsidy formed a basic part of the social contract between the people and their government. It was a benefit all were to enjoy. Yet, because past governments were not for and of the people, the true meaning and objective of the subsidy policy became lost. Over the years, the operation of the measure was distorted to where it no longer functioned for the benefit of the masses but for the undue enrichment of a small club of businessmen, some legitimate in their work, some not.

“Instead of remaining a positive aspect of the social contract, subsidy was transformed into an opaque haven of intrigue and malfeasance. It was turned into a shadowy process from which the unscrupulous extracted large sums of money without providing the services and products duly paid for. Fake businessmen became true billionaires over night as if by supernatural force. They paraded themselves as such.

“To allow this unfairness to continue would have been a breach of the promise made by this government to the people. We all have an emotional and sympathetic attachment to the ideals upon which the subsidy was founded.”

The APC leader, who confessed that he would have ordinarily preferred that the sector was sanitised and not totally liberalised, expressed belief that the current government took a decision that serves the people best, stressing that “this administration entered office with a mandate of Change. The government could not forever sit back and allow this dire inequity to continue, lest it forfeits the essence of its mandate.”