Vice President Kashim Shettima has disclosed that President Bola Tinubu deliberately kept his decision to end the petrol subsidy regime a “top secret,” intentionally excluding it from his written inaugural speech to prevent persuasion against the move.
Shettima made this disclosure on Friday during a high-profile courtesy visit by state governors to the President at his private residence in Lagos, to mark the Eid el-Kabir festivities and the third anniversary of the administration.
“Your Excellency, the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy, you kept it a top secret; it wasn’t part of your speech,” Shettima said.
“It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. You had made that decision and kept it close to your heart because you believed if you had incorporated it into your speech, some people would try to persuade you not to do so.”
Shettima described this act as “the courage of leadership,, “the audacity of hope,” and “the effrontery to see into the future.”
Defending the economic restructuring implemented by the administration over the last three years, Shettima argued that Tinubu inherited a structurally compromised nation that required surgery.
He continued, “You did not come to power at the season of ease. You came at a time when the house required more than a painter. It required a builder with the courage to examine the foundation. You inherited a nation standing before difficult questions, a nation trapped between the comfort of old illusions and the necessity of a new beginning. In that defining hour, you choose not to postpone the surgery. You choose not to massage the wound.
“You choose to confront the contradictions that have held this country hostage for 50 years. That, Mr President, is the miracle of your courage. What you have done is not simply to administer a government. You have begun the difficult work of re-engineering a nation. It’s not a banquet. It is a battlefield. It is not a picnic for the pain-hearted. It is a covenant with the future.”
Our correspondent report that Tinubu also defended the subsidy removal on Friday, stating that it saved Nigeria from imminent bankruptcy and that the difficult reform period was now yielding visible dividends for states and citizens alike.
During the meeting, Chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum and Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma, reportedly announced that the governors had scored the President’s performance 100 per cent, adding that he “recovered Nigeria from the road of collapse to that of stability and survival.”
