The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohamed Idris has remarked that one of the defining pillars of the Renewed Hope Agenda has been the removal of petrol subsidy.
Idris, said this in Calabar on Thursday, during the official commissioning of the new government printing press and the remodelled state newspaper corporation, the Nigerian Chronicle.
The minister said the decision by President Bola Tinubu was a difficult one, and the administration recognises the pressures that the adjustment has imposed on households and businesses.
He said: “Nigeria could not continue with a system that consumed enormous public resources, encouraged distortions and constrained investment in infrastructure, education, healthcare, security and other productive sectors.
“The task before us is therefore not to reverse the reform and return to an arrangement that the country could no longer sustainably afford. It is to make the reform work better and faster for Nigerians.”
The minister added that any proposal to restore the old open-ended subsidy regime must therefore be considered against its consequences.
“Reversal would threaten fiscal stability, weaken confidence in the direction of the economy and jeopardise the long-term development gains Nigeria is working hard to secure,” Idris further stated.
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He argued that the answer to the hardship associated with the reform is not to dismantle the reform; but to accelerate its benefits.
On the 2027 general elections, the minister urged Nigerians to have confidence in the nation’s democracy and in the institutions established to protect it.
He said that the Tinubu administration remains committed to a peaceful, credible and transparent electoral process in which the will of the Nigerian people will be respected.
“The relevant institutions must be allowed to discharge their constitutional responsibilities independently and professionally.
“Political competition is an essential part of democracy, but it must never become an excuse to divide our country. Elections will come and go; Nigeria will remain.
“I therefore appeal to political actors, the media and citizens alike to place national unity above sectional, ethnic, religious or partisan considerations,” Idris said.
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