By David Kabiyesi
Erstwhile President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari said he deliberately delayed removal of fuel subsidy to boost Tinubu and All Progressive Congress (APC) chances of winning the last presidential election.
This was contained in a statement made available through his former spokesman, Garba Shehu on Monday.
According to Buhari, APC would have struggled at the polls had his administration removed fuel subsidy months before elections.
In the statement titled “Buhari didn’t fail to remove subsidy”, Shehu wrote: “Why did it take the new Tinubu/ Shettima presidency weeks to remove the petrol subsidy when Buhari didn’t do so for years, fails to ask the right question.
“The massive electricity subsidy. The fraudulent fertilizer subsidy. Hajj/Christian pilgrim subsidies. Remember them?
“The diesel subsidy. The aviation fuel subsidy. LPFO. Kerosene. Cooking gas and the other subsidy policies we found in place, and put them firmly on the ground. Remember them?
“For those with short memories, many of those subsides were all in place when President Buhari was elected to office in 2015: all those in place were gone by May 2023 – including the annual fertilizer subsidy that weighed 60-100 billion Naira (that’s trillion naira in about 10 years – yes you read that right) heavy on the federal budget each year.
“So no, Buhari didn’t remove the petrol subsidy.
