James Emejo in Abuja and Funmi Ogundare in Lagos
Presidential Spokesman, Chief Ajuri Ngelale, yesterday appealed to Nigerians to continue to support the administration of President Bola Tinubu, stressing that the current economic hardship would soon be over.
He said the bold decisions by the president to remove fuel subsidy and float the Naira – actions which are blamed for the current hardship – were necessary reforms aimed at repositioning the economy as well as improving the wellbeing of Nigeria in the long-term.
In an interview monitored on Channels Television, the presidential spokesperson, he said there however appeared to be an unspoken concession among Nigerians that president was taking the right steps to reset the economy – partly because there had not been a major revolt since the reforms started.
He insisted that the reforms so far embarked upon by the current administration were the only way out as the country was headed a situation where it would have been unbale to meet its obligations as a sovereign entity.
He said the administration is currently working to resolve underlying issues in the economy particularly stabilising the local currency before fixing a new minimum wage to avoid further back and forth on the issue.
Ngelale, who spoke on sundry issues said to cushion the effect of the hardship experienced by Nigerians, the government was concluding plans to launch a consumer credit system working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to lend trillion of naira to Nigerians in order to boost demand for consumer goods as well as incentivize manufacturers thereby creating jobs. He said the proposed student loans programme would also become operational soon.
He said the government was working closely with the central bank to introduce new incentives to the banking industry to essentially free up lending and bridging the financing gap.
He said the consumer credit initiative would ensure quality of life for Nigerians.
He said contrary to insinuations that the present administration often failed to take responsibility for its actions, the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari needed to take responsibility for most of the events that happen during the regime.
Particularly the seeming lax corporate governance at the central bank. He said the new administration was working to ensure that the CBN governor no longer chairs the board of directors going forward to act as checks and balances as well as minimise abuses of office.
Asked if Tinubu shouldn’t have waited to get into office to assess the situation of things before removing fuel subsidy, the presidential spokesman said things were much worse than the president expected when he assumed office.
He said the president never wanted to continue to pay subsidies with borrowed funds adding that the country’s balance sheet was in a mess.
He said contrary to speculations, there is currently no rift between the president and Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote.
He also clarified that the alleged corruption probe of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and other officials was still ongoing and has not been swept under the carpet.
He re-echoed the assertion of the president that the floating of the local currency was not a mistake adding that there was no going back on current reforms despite the hardship which he termed as temporary. He urged Nigerians to be patient as help is on the way.
Ngelale, also clarified that contrary to the narrative, the operation of local refineries would not lead to reduction in pump price of petrol in the country, explaining that prices are usually benchmarked with international oil performance and considering that investments in the refineries must be recouped.
Nonetheless, he said one of the benefits of a functional refinery is the ability to boost the country foreign exchange inflows from exports of refined petroleum products and conservation of FX, including job creation. He said there was no correlation between pump price and local refining but subject to global competition.
He said between the next 12 to 16 months, the narrative about Fx inflows into the country would change for the better on the back of the refineries in operation in the country.
He expressed optimism that the operation of both public and private refineries would help to strengthen the Naira moving forward.
He also called on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to show understanding with the government regarding its determination to further embark on industrial action.
He said while the NLC may not be totally wrong to embark on strike, some individuals appeared to the taking undue advantage of the economic hardship to achieve their political objective, adding that this was unacceptable.
He said it’s been extremely painful for Nigerians and the president over the past nine months to witness the economic difficulties that had emerged.
According to him, the president has had to “watch our people suffer and watch the naira depreciate simply because we don’t have the finance buffer to bolster the national currency while it’s falling.
“These are real outcomes of real decisions that were taken before he came into office. And what we have to do is to communicate very clearly to our people, that this is what we have faced. These were the tremendously difficult decisions that we had and it was literally getting to a point now where you’re now starting to look at debt defaults…”
