President Bola Tinubu in his address on Sunday, August 4, 2024, ruled out the return of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) famously known as petrol.
After three days of #EndBadGovernance protests, the President said the removal of subsidy on petrol was a painful but necessary decision he took for economic reforms.
In his speech, President Tinubu stated thus:
“For decades, our economy has remained anaemic and taken a dip because of many misalignments that have stunted our growth.
“Just over a year ago, our dear country, Nigeria, reached a point where we couldn’t afford to continue the use of temporary solutions to solve long-term problems for the sake of now and our unborn generations.
“I, therefore, took the painful yet necessary decision to remove fuel subsidies and abolish multiple foreign exchange systems which had constituted a noose around the economic jugular of our Nation and impeded our economic development and progress.
“These actions blocked the greed and the profits that smugglers and rent-seekers made. They also blocked the undue subsidies we had extended to our neighbouring countries to the detriment of our people, rendering our economy prostrate.
“These decisions I made were necessary if we must reverse the decades of economic mismanagement that didn’t serve us well. Yes, I agree, the buck stops on my table. But I can assure you that I am focused fully on delivering the governance to the people – good governance for that matter.”