President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Information Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has said that a “short memory” has not allowed many Nigerians to accurately assess the country’s problems, leading them to unfairly blame the President.
Speaking on Arise TV on Friday, Onanuga contended that people are too eager to criticize the current government without recalling the state of affairs before Tinubu took power.
“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 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 assumed office in May 2023, Nigeria was grappling with a severe fuel crisis.
According to him, the months leading up to the general election had been marked by widespread fuel scarcity, characterized by long queues at petrol stations and significant supply shortages across the nation.
Onanuga recalled that at that time, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) was the sole importer of fuel with the federal government’s outstanding debt of over ₦4 trillion in unpaid subsidy claims had severely impacted NNPC’s ability to operate.
This debt forced NNPC to reduce its fuel imports, as it was unable to pay its foreign suppliers. It was against this challenging backdrop that President Tinubu, on his very first day in office, announced the immediate removal of the fuel subsidy.
This decision triggered an instant increase in fuel pump prices, prompting the government to swiftly implement measures aimed at restoring a stable fuel supply, he said.
“I remember, for instance, in May 2023 when Tinubu took over the government, there was fuel shortage in this country.
People forgot that all through the election of that year, there was fuel shortage. So when the President announced on day one, the day was sworn in and said he was removing fuel subsidy.
“The immediate reaction was called by NNPC, which has been the major supplier of fuel, was to increase the pump price. Because as 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,” the spokesman explained.
Onanuga said people forget these facts easily, pointing out that Nigeria could no longer afford to maintain fuel subsidy because the country lacked the resources.
“And we were just spending the money that ought to belong to the future generation. So the resources are not there so government just ought to do the right thing. Yeah, problems followed what the President did.”
He said the Tinubu administration has been open about the challenges that came after removing the subsidy and has rolled out several plans to ease the hardship on citizens.
He also noted that one of the key achievements of the administration is fixing the foreign exchange system.
Onanuga urged Nigerians to give the President credit for tackling problems that past governments, including those under the PDP, ignored, especially the issue of arbitrage in the forex market.
He said: “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 are very important, are very necessary, and they are for the benefit of our people.
“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 are showing and to the benefit of our people.”
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