The Special Adviser on Media and Information Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, has said that many Nigerians are quick to criticise the President without remembering the deep challenges the country faced before Tinubu assumed office.
He made this comment during a recent interview on Arise TV.
Onanuga pointed out that citizens often forget the poor state of affairs in Nigeria before May 2023, when President Tinubu was sworn in.
According to him, many of the economic and social problems the country is currently dealing with did not begin with the present administration.
“I remember, for instance, in May 2023 when Tinubu took over the government, there was fuel shortage in this country.
“People forgot that all through the election of that year, there was fuel shortage. So when the President announced on day one, the day was sworn in and said he was removing fuel subsidy.
“The immediate reaction was called by NNPC, which has been the major supplier of fuel, was to increase the pump price. Because as at that time, NNPC was no more willing to import fuel.
“NNPC was saying the federal government was owing it over 4 trillion Naira and it was also owing its suppliers abroad. So what the federal government did, what President Tinubu did, was to bring some life into NNPC to resume importing fuel so that fuel can be available,” he said.
Onanuga said people forget these facts easily. He stressed that Nigeria could no longer afford to maintain fuel subsidy because the country lacked the resources.
In his words, “And we were just spending the money that ought to belong to the future generation. So the resources are not there so government just ought to do the right thing. Yeah, problems followed what the President did.”
He said the Tinubu administration has been open about the challenges that came after removing the subsidy and has rolled out several plans to ease the hardship on citizens.
He also noted that one of the key achievements of the administration is fixing the foreign exchange system.
Onanuga urged Nigerians to give the President credit for tackling problems that past governments, including those under the PDP, ignored, especially the issue of arbitrage in the forex market.
“So I want to start from there and say, look, Nigeria should give this President some credit for stopping the arbitrage that characterised the foreign exchange regime under previous administrations, including PDP.
“But people are just not willing to give him any credit. Some critics.
“But we know that what he has done are very important, are very necessary, and they are for the benefit of our people.
“And we can see the results of the efforts he has done so far. You can see the results, the gains that have accrued to this country, the reforms that have taken place, and the gains are showing and to the benefit of our people,” the media aide concluded.
