Subsidy: Past administrations lacked courage to take bold decisions, says Garba Shehu

Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, says past administrations did not have the courage to take unpopular decisions.

Shehu, in a statement on Sunday, said President Muhammadu Buhari will be remembered as the leader who made “real contributions to economic and overall national development by eliminating the evils of corruption embedded in subsidies”.

The Buhari-led administration in March announced that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) would no longer absorb the differentials between the landing cost and retail price of petrol.

As a result of this, the retail price of petrol has been adjusted monthly to reflect the realities of the global crude oil market.

“Subsidy removal in these sectors had long been foreseen by successive administrations as game changers in search of solutions to move forward with the nation’s development. These are reforms that are necessary and overdue. Blueprint upon blueprint, timeline upon timeline had come and gone but the courage to take bold decisions was not there,” he said.

According to Shehu, Buhari has shown the rare determination to carry out bold decisions that are driven by the desire to ensure the greatest good for the people.

“In carrying out the reforms, the president needs the support and understanding of all citizens-inclusive of the opposition parties, the labour movement and civil society groups,” the presidential aide said.

“In these challenging times, the president is pushing development goals, not politics and history will judge him in favourable terms rather than his critics in the new media and the opposition.”