President Bola Tinubu has ruled out a return to Nigeria’s petrol subsidy regime, warning against calls to reverse his administration’s economic reforms and describing such calls as a “siren song”.
Tinubu stated this in his Independence Day address to Nigerians on Thursday, as the country marked its 66th anniversary, while defending the reforms introduced since he assumed office in 2023.
The President said his administration had chosen to confront what he described as longstanding weaknesses in the economy rather than continue policies that merely eased their effects.
Our reforms did not create the weaknesses in our economy. They confronted them,” Tinubu said.
He warned against what he described as calls from “certain influential but regressive voices” to abandon the reforms and return to subsidy arrangements.
“Now, as certain influential but regressive voices would have us abandon the treatment and return ourselves to the abuse of addictive subsidies, we must resist their siren song,” the President said.
Tinubu likened the Nigerian economy before the reforms to a cancer patient whose treatment was painful but necessary, saying previous governments had focused on easing symptoms while allowing the underlying problems to deepen.
“Nigeria was like a sick patient who receives the terrible news that he has cancer,” he said
