The Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lanre Issa-Onilu, emphasized on Wednesday that reinstating the fuel subsidy would exacerbate poverty in Nigeria.
He encouraged citizens to develop strategies to cope with the economic impact of its removal by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Issa-Onilu, who previously served as a spokesperson for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), argued that the demands by #EndBadGovernance protesters for the return of the subsidy are driven by emotion rather than economic rationale.
He stated on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily that reintroducing the subsidy would worsen poverty rather than alleviate it.
He urged Nigerians to focus on how to adapt to the subsidy removal and highlighted government efforts to support survival without it.
Acknowledging the longstanding trust issues between the government and the public, Issa-Onilu stressed the importance of proving the administration’s commitment to fulfilling its promises.
Issa-Onilu said, “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.
“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.”
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.”
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