A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and elder statesman, Chief Bisi Akande, has blamed former President Muhammadu Buhari for the suffering Nigerians are currently experiencing as the result of removal of fuel subsidy.
Akande, a former Governor of Osun State, said that Buhari should have removed fuel subsidy from 2015 when he was first elected President, insisting that by now Nigerians would have overcome the challenges associated with subsidy removal.
The former Interim National Chairman of the APC also said that from the beginning he was not in tune with the economic policies of the Buhari administration.
“And I kept saying it but as part of the administration, I couldn’t go to the press to say it. It would have been senseless because Buhari never closed the door of his house to me. I can meet and talk to him whenever I want,” he said on Channels TV.
“And I was saying that I wasn’t comfortable with economic management. Let’s use, for example, the removal of fuel subsidy, between the time Buhari was elected as President and the time he was inaugurated, we had several sessions of discussion to see if the subsidy should be removed and he was convinced.
“And I thought that as soon as he got to power he would removed the subsidy but I didn’t know what happened. And after his inauguration he started being careful, slowing down until the first four years.
“So, at the beginning of the term, he came out, he wanted to remove the subsidy and the country reacted and he had to back out. So from the beginning I wasn’t comfortable. Subsidy ought to have been removed at that time and by now Nigerians should have been used to it.”
DAILY POST reported that President Bola Tinubu said the 2023 budget did not provide for fuel subsidy payments during his inaugural address at the Eagles Square.