President Bola Tinubu has urged to Nigerians to be patient and believe in his administration in the face of the pain caused by the elimination of gasoline subsidies, promising to come up with palliatives that will put smiles on everyone’s faces.
President Tinubu acknowledges that the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy is causing hardship for Nigerians, but pledges that the savings will benefit all Nigerians.
He also restated his resolve to restore Nigeria to glory and urged folks to view the current difficult times as a type of childbirth preparation.
The President, who made the vow during a meeting with the Class of 1999 Governors at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, reiterated his commitment to Nigeria’s greatness and appealed for support for the umpteenth time.
Remember that at his inaugural speech on May 29, the President said that the subsidy is no longer in effect, and the pump price of petrol increased the next day from N195 to almost N500 per litre.
As a result, the costs of goods and commodities surged to an unsettling and unpleasant degree.
Furthermore, in a February meeting with oil and gas operators, Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, revealed that the country spent N400 billion per month on fuel subsidies.
But speaking at the meeting with the Class of 1999 Governors, yesterday, the President said: “On the subsidy removal thank you for the support. And I understand people are suffering. Yet, there can be no childbirth without pain.
“The joy of childbirth is the big relief of the pain. Nigeria is reborn. It is a rebirth of our country. To face our problem, to bring the savings to benefit the largest number of people in the country and not a few smugglers and exploiters. Thank you for your support.”
He reaffirmed his commitment to Nigeria’s grandeur and appealed for assistance.
The President also asked for citizens’ patience and faith in the supply of palliatives to mitigate the painful impacts of the elimination of fuel subsidies.
Speaking to State House media following the meeting, Chairman of the Class of 1999 Governors and former Edo State governor, Lucky Igbinedion, reiterated the group’s support for President Tinubu as he takes on the work of repairing the country.
The Governors of the Class of 1999 were the first elected governors of the current democratic regime, often known as the Fourth Republic.
He said, “We’ll like to thank you for this opportunity to address you this evening after our courtesy call on one of our own, Mr. President, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, who is one of the foundation members of this present Fourth Republic. As you all know, every one of us that is here was a governor from 1999. So we’ll like to say we are the solid foundation on which this Fourth Republic has been thriving.
“We came to congratulate Mr. President and also to thank him for making one of us the Secretary to Government. We came to assure him that he has our full support and prayers for the bold steps he has started to take, for his initiatives and also let him know that this is beyond party politics, we’re now talking about Project Nigeria, therefore all hands must be on deck to give Mr President the needed support and encouragement to foster a better a better nation.
“We also seized the opportunity to congratulate him as the new Chairman of the ECOWAS and assure him that we’re with him and anytime he wants to dig into the wealth of experience of this very prominent and well-founded member of Class of ’99, he should rest assured that we’ll continue to give him the necessary support.
“On his part, Mr. President assured us that it is his dream to see a better Nigeria and he also wants us to let you know that the decisions that he has taken so far might be painful, but it’s just like childbirth; in order to celebrate a child, you must go through labor.
“Therefore, Nigerians should wait patiently and believe in him, that he’s going to come up with palliatives that will put smiles on the faces of every one of us in Nigeria,
“So we believe him and we want to encourage you also to give him the necessary support through the media and give correct information to the general populace so that we’ll have a greater nation,” he said.
Igbinedion also revealed that the committee discussed other national issues such as security, unemployment, and infrastructure needs.
“We talked about security, we talked about unemployment and we talked about electricity because without electricity, we really cannot develop. So for us to develop, then there must be a constant, uninterrupted power supply.
“Subsidy is gone, and it’s gone forever. People should start finding their level and I’m sure we time things will come to normal and also the unification of the exchange rate into one now, as was also mentioned.
“So these are just the basic issues that we raised there and Mr President, on his own, thanked us for coming en mass. You can see in 1999 we were 36, but today we’re now 26. We want to assure you that even though some of us have gone to the great beyond, the majority of us are still very much alive and it is our prayer that we’ll continue to be of service to our nation, without any prejudices,” he said.
