- Safiu Kehinde
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has reacted to promise to return subsidy made by the 2027 African Democratic Congress Presidential Election, Atiku Abubakar.
Sanwo-Olu described the planned return of subsidy as parts of the opposition parties’ promises which cannot be honoured by treasury of any country in the world.
Sanwo-Olu stated this while delivering the 7th yearly lecture of Freedom Online newspaper kn Thursday.
Speaking on the theme of the event, “2027 Elections, Economy, Security, and Nigeria’s Future’, the Lagos governor charged Nigerians to prepare for more of such promises from the opposition as campaign intensifies.
“Barely two weeks in, opposition politicians have reached for the fuel subsidy as their instrument of choice, we will see more of this as we go on, we will see promises that no treasury on earth can honour.
“We will see conditions formed, dissolved and reformed again.” He said.
Sanwo-Oku explained that the subsidy was removed by President Bola Tinubu for not serving the purpose it was intended to serve.
He alleged the usage of the policy as a scheme to siphon public fund with benefitting the citizens.
“The subsidy was not removed because anybody enjoyed removing it, it was removed because it had become a hole in the national purse through which the money for roads, schools and hospitals was draining away, and because much of that money was never reaching the ordinary motorist it was supposed to help.
“In the 2023 election, every major candidate promised to remove it. Only one of them was in a position to do it, and he did it on his first day in office” He said.
While admitting to the hardship caused by the subsidy removal, Sanwo-Olu however reforms cannot be judge on the pain it brings but by the succour and healing it provides.
“I will not stand here and tell you that it has been painless. It has not. Lagosians have felt it at the park. Lagosians have felt it at the market and in price of a bag of rice.
“Any governor who tells you otherwise has not been listening to his own people.
“But the measure of a reform is not whether it hurts.
“It is whether it heals and the evidence that this one is healing is arriving quarter by quarter. He said.
Sanwo-Olu cited the recent released report on Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure which revealed that Tinubu’s reform is healing.
“On Monday, the National Bureau of Statistics published the growth figures for the second quarter of this year.
“The economy grew by 4.43 per cent, up from 3.89 per cent in the first quarter and from 4.23 per cent in the same quarter of last year.
“Agriculture, the sector on which most of our people depend, grew by 4.39 per cent, up from 2.82 per cent a year earlier.
“Services grew by 4.6 per cent. In nominal terms, the economy is more than 18 per cent larger than it was twelve months ago.” He said.
Sanwo-Olu also cited the increase in the country’s external reserve and the exchange rate stability as another evidence of positive changes recorded by Tinubu’s reform.
“Look past the headline and the picture holds. Our external reserves stood at 53 billion dollars last week, the highest they have been since January 2009. We are running a trade surplus.
“Fitch and Moody’s both upgraded Nigeria’s credit rating last year. Inflation, which peaked at almost 35 per cent at the end of 2024, was 15.9 per cent in June.
“The naira has held its ground against the dollar for the better part of a year. And the era of unpaid public servants, unpaid pensioners and abandoned federal projects is behind us.
“This week, too, the Central Bank reported that Nigerians abroad sent home 947 million dollars through formal channels in the month of July.
“That is the largest monthly figure in our history, and it is within touching distance of the one-billion-dollar-a-month target that many people laughed at when it was set two years ago.” Sanwo-Olu said.
These, according to the governor, are not coined by him but confirmed by the National Bureau of Statistics and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“That, in the end, is the difference between a case built on facts and a campaign built on fear.”
“For us in the All Progressives Congress, the position that follows is a simple one.
“We intend to stay the course, to deepen the reforms, and to make sure that the benefits reach, quickly and visibly, the people who bore the cost.” He added.