The Nigeria Vice-President, Kashim Shettima has said that the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s led government will not blame the administration of former Muhammadu Buhari for the challenges it encountered after taking over.
Shettima added that those who contested the presidency with President Tinubu did not feel morally justified to question the decision to remove fuel subsidies because it was part of the solutions they also tabled before Nigerians.
Speaking during the second Chronicle Roundtable, organised by the 21st Century Chronicle, the VP said that it is the most difficult time to occupy political leadership in Nigeria due to the challenges facing the country.
He said: “The president chose the option that will save the lives of the people instead of the ones that will lead to the prolong the economic death. We will not resort to put the blame on previous administration as leadership is about courage, continuity.”
“Before we took charge, the biggest elephant in the room was about fuel subsidy removal. It was an albatross round the neck of the nation for the past 20 to 30 years. We understood why our predecessor decided to remove subsidy because there were no sufficient budget for it in the fiscal year.
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“A year before we took office, Nigeria’s debt service to revenue ratio had grown to 111.18 percent. It was an economic death sentence. To be plain to us, our debt service was that if you earn N100,000, you are forced to borrow an additional N11,800 to pay the debtor. How do we intend to survive this? It will be long before we become a pariah.”
“We have to jettison the subsidy regime, it was a bitter pill to swallow but we had to do it.”
