President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Information Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, claims that many Nigerians blame the President for the country’s issues because they have a “short memory” and frequently forget the situation before Tinubu assumed office.
Onanuga made this allegation in an interview with Arise TV on Friday. He said people are too ready to condemn the current administration without considering the situation of the country before the president took office.
“Let me start by saying that many of us in this country, many Nigerians, we sometimes exhibit the problem of lack of memory. We have a very short memory.
“We forget where we started from, and we just start blaming President Tinubu for all the problems that Nigeria is going through,” Onanuga said.
When President Tinubu took office in May 2023, Nigeria was already facing a serious fuel crisis.
Fuel scarcity was common during the months leading up to the general election, with long queues and supply shortages across the country.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), the only fuel importer at the time, reduced imports because the federal government owed it over ₦4 trillion in unpaid subsidy claims.
He said that on his first day in office, Tinubu declared the elimination of gasoline subsidies due to the challenging conditions.
The decision resulted in an immediate increase in pump prices and measures by the administration to restore fuel supplies.
“I remember, for instance, in May 2023, when Tinubu took over the government, there was a fuel shortage in this country.
“People forgot that all through the election of that year, there was a fuel shortage. So when the President announced on day one, the day he was sworn in, that he was removing the fuel subsidy.
“The immediate reaction was called by NNPC, which has been the major supplier of fuel, and was to increase the pump price. Because at that time, NNPC was no more willing to import fuel.
“NNPC was saying the federal government was owing it over 4 trillion Naira, and it was also owing its suppliers abroad. So what the federal government did, what President Tinubu did, was to bring some life into NNPC to resume importing fuel so that fuel can be available,” he said.
Onanuga stated that people forget these facts easily. He stressed that Nigeria could no longer afford to maintain the fuel subsidy because the country lacked the resources.
Onanuga said, “And we were just spending the money that ought to belong to the future generation. So the resources are not there, so the government just ought to do the right thing. Yeah, problems followed what the president did.”
He stated that the Tinubu administration has been honest about the issues that have arisen as a result of the subsidy removal and has implemented a number of strategies to alleviate citizens’ misery.
He also stated that one of the administration’s major accomplishments is the repair of the foreign exchange system.
Onanuga asked Nigerians to give the president credit for addressing issues that previous governments, including those of the PDP, had disregarded, particularly the issue of forex arbitrage.
“So I want to start from there and say, look, Nigeria should give this president some credit for stopping the arbitrage that characterised the foreign exchange regime under previous administrations, including PDP.
“But people are just not willing to give him any credit. Some critics.
“But we know that what he has done is very important, very necessary, and for the benefit of our people.
“And we can see the results of the efforts he has done so far. You can see the results, the gains that have accrued to this country, the reforms that have taken place, and the gains that are showing to the benefit of our people,” the media aide concluded.
