The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has denied claims that the administration of President Bola Tinubu reintroduced fuel subsidies through a covert method.
They clarified that the government’s intervention aimed to stabilize and predict fuel prices.
Reports emerged indicating that the administration spent a substantial N169.4 billion in August to maintain the fuel pump price at N620 per litre.
Despite opposition criticism of the Tinubu administration, the APC stated on Monday night that such substantial expenditures did not signify a reintroduction of fuel subsidy.
The ruling party also criticized Phrank Shaibu, the Media Aide to the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, for spreading “fake news” and engaging in “other inanities” in an attempt to discredit President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
APC stated:
“Shaibu’s claim that fuel subsidy is back is not correct. Government’s intervention to ensure some measure of price stability and predictability does not amount to return of the ruinous fuel subsidy of recent past”.
APC spokesman, Felix Morka in a statement on Monday night said Shaibu “in an unfledged statement…outed himself in his warped and misleading suggestion that the APC-led Administration was hoodwinking Nigerians by propaganda”.
Morka said on Shaibu’s “pathological and cynical flippancy”, he delved into matters he clearly does not understand or lacks the constitutive capacity to understand as a result of post-electoral traumatic stress disorder (PeTSD) arising from his boss’ serial electoral failure.
The Spokesman said:
“Unsurprisingly, Shaibu’s only ‘evidence’ for such an arrant conclusion is that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed more media aides than economic and security advisers, conveniently glossing over the fact that Mr President was swift in rejigging the security architecture and repositioning the Armed Forces for optimal performance in defence of lives and property.
“Certainly, he does not understand the issues and the interplay of statecraft and economic management initiatives by President Tinubu to remove age-old distortions and contradictions, accelerate and solidify all-round recovery and prosperity for our country.
“That Shaibu described as ‘lies’, the administration’s courageous decisions to remove fuel subsidy, harmonize the foreign exchange regimes and sign into law the Students’ Loan Act, only buttresses his poor understanding of economic development and governance. That the fine details of these visionary and people-centred policies are still being worked out and have yet to run their due course cannot and do not negate their valid objectives and potential transformative impact. The President has dutifully appointed experienced and highly skilled professionals to key institutions of the economy, including the Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, and Federal Inland Revenue Service FIRS and created the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy in a patriotic zeal to reposition and grow the economy.
“Lifting the Visa ban on Nigerians by the United Arab Emirates UAE authorities should ordinarily make any well-meaning Nigerian happy. Diplomatic rapprochement between Nigeria and UAE authorities is ongoing and details of outcomes will soon be made public.
“The matter of the proposed meeting with United States of America President Joe Biden does not even require elaboration. Having met with President Tinubu on the sidelines of the G-20 Nations summit in India, another meeting with President Biden during the United Nation’s General Assembly UNGA had become unnecessary and was not even on President Tinubu’s schedule, contrary to preliminary indications on the matter”.