Social Democratic Party (SDP), Presidential candidate in the last election, Prince Adewole Adebayo has described as untidy and ill-timed, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s announcement of fuel subsidy removal.
This is even as he advised Nigerians to be united, come together so that they can hold the elite more accountable.
Adebayo, in a message on his verified Twitter account @Pres_Adebayo, noted that it might appear too early to criticize Tinubu, having just been sworn in, but he should be reminded that the occasion of his inaugural speech was not the best avenue to have announced the suspension of such a macroeconomic policy.
He insisted that Nigerians would need an alternative measure to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal before any action could be taken in that direction.
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Adebayo also wondered if the sudden subsidy removal was what Nigerians would get from the renewed hope agenda of the present administration.
He tweeted: “I don’t want to seem impatient or trigger happy in criticism of the brand new president Tinubu. But it is not a neat way to announce a cost driven macroeconomic policy of fuel subsidy removal by just dropping it in an inaugural speech. We need shock absorbers first. Renewed hope?”
Meanwhile, Adebayo had at the weekend, called on Nigerians to unite among themselves in order to make the elite accountable to them.
He noted that politicians are highly united through various interests like business, politics, and marriage, unlike the people who are only united by problems.
He said, ” The people who need the unity most are the Nigerian people. Politicians don’t need unity because they already have it. Politicians are highly united. You will see today that the campaign manager for Akpabio to become the senate president is President Tinubu because Akpabio did everything against all odds to support his presidential ambition.
“Wike united with Tinubu. Ganduje, talking like a jilted lover when he heard that Kwankwaso had gone to see his friend, Tinubu in Paris, France. The political elite have ways of coming together. You saw Peter Obi and others coming together to celebrate Aliko Dangote when he commissioned his refinery. They do businesses together, their children inter marry.
“The people who need the advice on unity are the people in our neighbourhood so that you don’t start insulting and fighting your neighbours over politics and then segregating yourselves.”