Removal of fuel subsidy, my original thoughts, won’t return to it – Tinubu

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has insisted that removing fuel subsidy was his original thoughts, vowed that his administration would not return to it.

He said he has no regrets over the removal of fuel subsidy, stated that restoring fuel subsidy will be like ‘asking the biblical Moses to go back to Egypt.’

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The President spoke on Monday night at the forum tagged ‘Together till 2027: An Evening with Original City Boy’, organised by the City Boy Movement in conjunction with the Relax-Tinubu-Is-Fixing-Nigeria movement, both of which are geared towards his re-election at the 2027 polls.

The President said he scrapped the subsidy from day one because it was his original thought

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“I came, and I removed the subsidy the first day,” he said, adding that Nigeria was heading for bankruptcy, with “nothing left to pay subsidy.”

Tinubu mocked the Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who vowed to restore fuel subsidy, if he wins election in 2027.

Citing what he called his studies of scripture in the Bible and the Holy Quran, Tinubu recalled how the Red Sea parted when Moses left Egypt.

He quoted from the Holy Bible to justify his actions when he said: “The end of fuel subsidy regime is like the exodus of the ancient Israelites from Egypt”, saying, “You cannot ask Moses to go back to Egypt.”

The President acknowledged the position of his political opponents who promised a return to fuel subsidy, but said when he remember the Holy Bible and Quran, he concluded, “when Moses left Egypt, they faced the challenge, and the Red Sea parted and gave way.

“You cannot ask Moses to go back to Egypt. We wake up with ideas, original thoughts, and deep thinking to move this country forward. With your energy, your support, Nigeria will never go back to Egypt. No regrets.

“Before I left home, I saw one of the greatest Chinese economic news growing by 4.6 per cent or thereabouts. We are on the right trajectory. We are in good company. The economy is growing steadily. You will have a future, a future to believe in.”

Tinubu distinguished between Nigeria winning an election and an individual winning election, saying those campaigning are doing it form themselves and their future and not himself, insisted that he couldn’t be pushed back.

He admitted taking hardest decisions in the last three years of his administration, adding that the decision was amid debt and deflated foreign reserves that threatened the economy of Nigeria.

“We owed money to airlines. They were almost cutting their flights to Nigeria. Our foreign reserve was nothing. We printed currencies as if there were no tomorrow.”

According to him, he thought it wise not to look at erroneous and past liability of his predecessor, but to move forward.

“We understood that a nation cannot borrow its way to greatness,” Tinubu said, adding that many people had predicted that young Nigerians would turn their backs on the reforms.

“They were wrong. You are here,” he said.

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