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Tinubu’s Team Should Have Clarified ‘Fuel Subsidy Is Gone’ Statement – Kpakol

He said that Tinubu was only speaking in a way to give Nigerians confidence about the subsidy removal.


Magnus Kpakol on Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, May 31, 2023

 

Magnus Kpakol, a former Chief Economic Adviser to former President Muhammadu Buhari, has claimed that the declaration of President Bola Tinubu that “fuel subsidy is gone” is not to say the policy would be implemented immediately.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, the former presidential adviser said that while listening to the president’s speech, he had an impression of empathy and understanding from him towards Nigerians.

Kpakol, who is also the Chairman of the Economic Growth and Development Centre, asserted that Tinubu was only speaking in a way to give Nigerians confidence about the subsidy removal.

READ ALSO: Subsidy Removal Only Answer To Make Nigeria Great – IPMAN

“When the president said ‘fuel subsidy is gone’, I know for a fact that he did not mean that it was gone at the time that he was speaking. I think that he was speaking in a very self-assured way to give confidence to the people that he knows what he is saying.

“But then he needs his technical people, they should have come right away to say that no, he is not saying that it (fuel subsidy) ended today,” he said.

The Professor stated that the post-period of the subsidy removal might not be terrible as it seems, adding that Nigerians would only have to go through a psychological adjustment to the change.

“I think at the end of the day, it is not going to be as bad as people are saying but there is going to be an adjustment problem, a psychological adjustment that people need to have.

“That is why this administration needs to come up with an empathetic story to try to show the people that they are with them,” he said.

Kpakol expressed his belief that Tinubu is dedicated to ideas revolving around economic growth, adding that the president is only tasked with helping people understand his context of subsidy removal.

“Tinubu is a guy committed to rational, proper economic ideas, and I am not surprised that he comes from the perspective that he is coming. I think that he understands the economy pretty well and he understands the nation very well.

“The problem is how to tell the story to the populace. His storytelling has to be very good because the whole thing is about how you tell the story,” Kpakol stated.

He added that the president has given the signal of working hand in hand with the masses, addressing key issues that concern Nigerians, and also delivering the economic freedom that the nation needs.