JUST IN: Details Of What Gov Abiodun Discussed With Obasanjo Revealed
Abiodun, who arrived at the former President’s residence at 11.58 am, went straight into...
Abiodun, who arrived at the former President’s residence at 11.58 am, went straight into a private meeting with him.
Emerging from the closed-door meeting, Abiodun described the meeting as a private one.
He said, “It is a private meeting. A son does not have to have any particular reason to come and see his father, so I have come to see our baba and it is a private meeting”.
When asked if they had a discussion as regards the mood of the nation especially the hardship the subsidy removal has caused Nigerians, Gov Abiodun declined to comment but lamented that, Nigeria lost N4 trillion annually to the subsidy regime, insisting that there was no better time to remove the subsidy than now.
The governor assured Nigerians that, the government would put into better use the money accrued from the subsidy removal to revamp the economy of the country.
“We all know that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration started with a bang. On the 29th of May, he reeled out a few initiatives, one of the most laudable of those initiatives was his decision to remove subsidies on petroleum products.
“As controversial as that initiative has been, no one can deny the fact that it was a very welcome initiative. That was a subsidy that Nigeria could no longer afford, it was a subsidy that was not in the budget beyond June 2023.
“More importantly, it was costing Nigeria about N4 trillion per annum, N4 trillion that Nigeria did not have, that we have to borrow, that could be better expended to other uses that the common man can feel, so it was a very right decision.
“Of course, it was a decision that also came with a bit of pain, but like they say, there is no gain without some pain”, Abiodun said.
He urged Nigerians to endure the hardship of increasing fuel price, saying the benefits of the subsidy removal outweigh the pain.
