Tinubu Is Embracing Bold Reforms Past Leaders Avoided – Lanre Adebayo

Bola Tinubu

The Director-General of the All Progressives Congress Progressive Institute, Lanre Adebayo, has come out to back President Tinubu’s economic reforms. He recently had his say while speaking on Nigeria’s reform trajectory at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Jade and Jaydens Services Limited and TPI, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, decisions like the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira are key measures to instil economic discipline, redirect national resources from consumption towards productive investment, and guarantee long-term stability.

He added that Tinubu keeps taking bold political risks that past leaders avoided due to fear of losing popularity.

His words, “President Buhari also tried the same thing as President Jonathan, but none of them was able to meaningfully confront a major strategic area of our economy, which is the consumption of the money we were making from oil, and also the money we were using to subsidize consumption through a subsidized forex regime. And on May 29, 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu courageously and boldly announced the removal of oil subsidy.

Some people said it was too fatal and that he should have avoided doing it because of the likely impact on the economy. The same thing was said about floating the naira. And you know, statesmen are always concerned about the long-term impact of reforms. Politicians are always concerned about winning and therefore always avoid taking painful decisions.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of course we know his antecedents, boldly removed oil subsidy. And the reason for that is this: for every dollar we spent on oil subsidy, we were consuming the money we made. And if you remember, and at least we often forget this, before this time, before 2023, most states’ governors were borrowing money to pay salaries. They were most of the time not able to achieve any meaningful development because much of the money available was spent on payment of salaries and consumption.

Today, there’s no state government that is borrowing to pay salaries. All states’ governors are embarking on massive infrastructural developments. You may not agree on their emphasis, but the fact is that they have a lot more resources to work with. The same thing with local governments.

Of course, there was immediate impact on prices. But as we’ve seen over the last one year or thereabout — the prices of petroleum is already responding to the dynamics of the interplay of the free market system. There is now an environment for investors; Dangote Petroleum has come on board and there is healthy competition within the oil sector, which was what was anticipated even when we were campaigning for the President.

So the anticipated results are beginning to manifest while we are getting better in all endeavours. To also make sure that it’s more effective, the government has ensured that local refining capacity is being granted. Of course, that’s an area that still requires a lot of effort.

Our goal, therefore, is to ensure that we work together as a team to propagate or advocate government policies, benefits and opportunities. And of course, from the removal of oil subsidy and the floating of the naira, there has been massive improvement in infrastructure.”

WOW.