Atiku, Obi Agreed With Tinubu On Subsidy Removal, Tax Reform — APC National Chair

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, has disclosed that the major economic reforms currently being implemented by the Federal Government were policies jointly agreed upon by the three leading presidential candidates in the 2023 general election — President Bola Tinubu, Labour Party’s Peter Obi, and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

Yilwatda made the assertion on Tuesday night while speaking on Channels Television’s current affairs programme, ‘Politics Today’, where he defended the Tinubu administration’s economic policies amid widespread public criticism and economic hardship.

He stressed that the reforms being carried out by the government were not exclusive to the APC or President Tinubu, noting that they were outcomes of broad agreement among the leading presidential contenders before the election.

“And mind you, most of what we are doing are policies that were agreed by the three major presidential candidates. That’s what we are implementing now.

“Most of the indices that you can use to judge an economy that is doing well, we have it,” the APC chairman said.

According to him, there was a shared understanding among the candidates on the need to collapse the foreign exchange parallel market, which he said was harmful to the economy.

“They all agreed we should collapse the parallel market,” he stated.

Yilwatda also said fuel subsidy was unanimously identified as fraudulent and unsustainable, adding that its removal was inevitable.

“They all agreed that subsidy was a fraud,” he said.

On taxation, the APC chairman noted that reforms in the sector were also part of the collective agreement reached by the candidates.

“They agreed on tax reform, and we have done all that was agreed,” he added.

Yilwatda acknowledged that the reforms were expected to have painful consequences for Nigerians in the short term, noting that this reality was also anticipated and accepted by the three leading candidates at the time.

“It was also agreed that these reforms will come with consequences,” he said. “All three leading candidates agreed that there is going to be consequences.”

He argued that the conversation should now move beyond the reforms themselves to how the government was addressing their effects on citizens, particularly the most vulnerable.

“What we should be asking is how we have improved the conditions of these consequences,” Yilwatda said.

“That is where social protection comes in.”