The Presidency on Sunday said Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) demonstrated “right courage” to take recent decisions that led to hike in fuel price and electricity tariff among others.
It said such decisions were long overdue but successive governments before Buhari’s lacked courage to take bold decisions.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, stated these in a statement titled “History will be kinder to President Buhari than his critics are prepared to be.”
Shehu was reacting to criticisms that trailed recent hike in fuel price and electricity tariff.
He described the reforms that led to the hike in prices as “necessary and overdue.”
The presidential aide claimed that the Buhari regime has worked hard to meet many expectations within its five years but that there are still “certain tough decisions” that must be taken to reposition the country.
The statement read,
“The All Progressives Congress came to power in 2015 defeating an incumbent administration amidst very high expectations from President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Five years on, the administration has worked hard to meet many expectations, but still, there are certain tough decisions which had to be taken to put back the country on the path of sustainable development.
“To stop the mismanagement of taxpayer money, eliminate corruption associated with subsidies on petroleum products, power, fertilizer among others, the administration took the decision to implement long-delayed reforms, withdraw and allow the market to determine their prices.
“Subsidy removal in these sectors had long been foreseen by successive administrations as game changers in search of solutions to move forward with the nation’s development. These are reforms that are necessary and overdue. Blueprint upon blueprint, timeline upon timeline had come and gone but courage to take bold decisions was not there.”