Tinubu Would Have Lost Elections If Buhari Removed Fuel Subsidy

Garba Shehu, a Senior Special Assistant to the immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari on Monday said the incumbent President, Bola Tinubu would have lost his bid to be president had Buhari removed the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit.

Shehu 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 fails to ask the right question” which was posted via his official Twitter handle @garbashehu noted that tensions were high and Buhari did not want to add “fuel to the fire”.

Speaking further, Shehu noted that the All Progressives Congress had an election to win and Buhari could not have removed the subsidy in the last days of his administration following the earlier removal of other forms of subsidies such as diesel subsidy, hajj/Christian pilgrim subsidy among others.

The statement by Shehu partly reads, “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.