The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, on Thursday said Nigerians should stop shouting about the fuel subsidy removal policy of President Bola Tinubu.
According to him, it is a well-intended policy which may seem hard at the moment, but would yield positive results.
Akume made the submission while addressing the National Executive Council of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Abuja.
The SGF said President Tinubu is working hard to address the current hardships in the country, which he argued are only temporary. According to him, Nigerians need to remain calm as Tinubu is working diligently to improve the economy.
He said the current administration took over a turbulent country, citing that the country’s foreign reserves and many other sectors were poorly managed and desperate steps needed to be taken to salvage the situation.
“We took over in a very turbulent weather. Foreign reserves were zero, but there have been massive reforms carried out by the president. One of them, which appeared to be a little bit tough for people to understand, is the subsidy removal of fuel. People should stop shouting; they need to know the actual truth,” Akume stated.
He submitted that the government has deployed palliatives to cushion the effects of these reforms on the citizens of the country.
“We are all aware of the 35,000 naira wage award for workers, which means a 30,000 naira minimum wage with 35,000 on top of that. Additionally, 100 billion naira for CNG fuel buses will help reduce transportation costs and food prices,” he said.
Akume also highlighted the allocation of 125 billion naira in conditional grants and financial inclusion for medium and small enterprises, and 150 billion naira in palliative loans to states to mitigate the impact of fuel subsidy removal.
“We are providing 200 billion naira to support the cultivation of hectares of land, which is even more now,” he added.
