Nigerians have been urged to show more understanding towards ensuring that President Bola Tinubu deliver on his campaign promises.
Presidential Spokesman, Mr Dele Alake, made this appeal in Lagos at a parley with Media Executives.
He said the President was not unmindful of the difficulties Nigerians are facing following the removal of fuel subsidy, assuring that things will return to normal by the end of the year or first quarter of 2024.
According to him, “We must go through the pains but not allow it to mislead us to destroy the country. To postpone the current challenges will be worse for our nation in the nearest future. The choice is to live through the temporary pains and enjoy the benefit that will last longer.”
Alake noted that President Tinubu took the bold step by removing the fuel subsidy that had become a burden to the development of the country, which he said no government could do in 40 six years.
The Presidential Spokesman insisted that subsidy didn’t really exist in true sense, regretting that about N400bn on a monthly basis was shared among the beneficiaries.
He explained that it is no longer business as usual for smugglers of the nation’s oil in neighbouring countries since subsidy was removed.
Alake attributed the increase in sharing of monthly federal allocation to over N900bn in June by the three tiers of government to savings from fuel subsidy removal.
He assured that Nigerians will see the effect of the removal soon when the money saved is ploughed back into the economy in form of interventions.
The Presidential spokesman lamented that different exchange rates under the watch of the suspended CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has done a lot of damage to the economy and responsible for failure of foreign Airlines to repatriate their earnings.
The development, according to him, has also impeded new foreign investments into the country.
He said Nigerians deserve a deeper reflection now because enormity of the challenges in the country was huge and will take time to ease off.
Alake, who also solicited the understanding of the media in clear projection of policies, described Tinubu’s project as God’s project because it was endorsed by Him alone with no godfather anywhere.
According to him, three attributes, which made Tinubu better than other past leaders of the country were knowledge, courage and resilience.
