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Lanre Issa-Onilu, Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), cautioned Nigerians on Wednesday to develop coping mechanisms to mitigate the economic hardships resulting from the recent removal of petrol subsidies by the President Bola Tinubu-led government.
Issa-Onilu, who previously served as spokesperson for the APC, warned that acceding to the demands of #EndBadGovernance protesters to restore the petrol subsidy would ultimately worsen poverty, rather than provide relief.
“Anybody who is making a demand that subsidy removal should be brought back is making an emotional demand, not an economic demand because you have to also prove that if it is brought back, it will solve the issue of poverty; it will not, it will aggravate it,” Issa-Onilu said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily breakfast show.
“So, what we should be doing is: How do we survive in spite of the removal?’ We need to promote all the efforts of this government to ensure that we survive without that subsidy.”
The NOA Director-General acknowledged the erosion of trust between the government and the governed, attributing it to the persistent pattern of failed promises and unmet expectations over the years.
Issa-Onilu, who addressed information managers, said, “It is difficult to talk to a people who have for several years been let down. Nigerians feel let down. The first question they ask you is: ‘Is this another promise that will not be kept?’ So, we must prove to Nigerians that this government is keeping to its promises.”
President Bola Tinubu made it unequivocally clear on Sunday that the subsidy on petrol, also known as Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), will not be reinstated.
Read also: Subsidy: Ebonyi Govt Begins Free CNG Transport Services
In a televised address to the nation, President Bola Tinubu explained to over 200 million Nigerians that the removal of the petrol subsidy was a difficult but essential step towards implementing vital economic reforms, following days of widespread #EndBadGovernance protests against economic hardship.
The protesters, mostly young Nigerians, who have been marching on the streets since Thursday, are unequivocally demanding the return of subsidies for petrol and electricity, citing these as crucial steps towards alleviating the country’s economic hardships.
