Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, has said that President Bola Tinubu encountered an economy that was precariously close to collapsing upon his assumption of office.
He remarked that although the economy was deteriorating, the President had the option to engage in political manoeuvring by maintaining the fuel subsidy; however, he opted to prioritise Nigeria’s future by making the decisive choice to eliminate the subsidy.
The Chief of Staff made these comments during the Working People United Good Governance summit in Abuja on Thursday, acknowledging that this decision may have inflicted hardship and exacerbated the difficulties faced by citizens, yet he emphasised that the economy would have been in a far worse state otherwise.
While highlighting several policies implemented by the President,he said, “It is a fact that the subsidy, which consumed trillions of naira annually, was unsustainable and disproportionately benefited a privileged few rather than safeguarding the ordinary worker it was purported to protect.
“The foreign exchange regime, artificially sustained, was depleting our reserves and distorting our markets. Our options had become limited, and this President, to his lasting credit, chose the path of responsibility rather than the path of delay.
“The President had a choice of approaching governance, the actual one of two ways, either coming and governed as a politician or coming and governed as a statesman.
“Now the difference between the two is that whilst the politician thinks about the next election, a leader and statesman thinks about the next generation. Mr President
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