From John Adeleye, Ado-Ekiti
The National Chairman of the South West Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA), Senator Dayo Adeyeye has said that the Decision by President Bola Tinubu to remove fuel subsidy was a mark of leadership, saying a leader must be able to take painful decisions.
Adeyeye stated this in Ado Ekiti yesterday when he led other members of SWAGA executives to distribute palliatives to people drawn from the 16 local government areas of the state.
The former minister of state for works explained that the steps and decisions taken so far by the president in the first 100 days in the administration, no matter how painful, were to preserve the future of Nigeria and the economy.
According to him, the decision for the removal of subsidy was supposed to have been taken as far back as 2014, adding that the country may not have survived another year without its removal.
The SWAGA boss said that if Tinubu had not removed the subsidy from the first day and waited for 2 weeks, he would have been persuaded against the removal.
“If you know the horrendous scam that is going on under the subsidy regime, you will be shocked. These are the money we can use to take care of our roads infrastructure, settle our University lecturers and also take good care of our health sector.
“It came to a head under Buhari when he was unable to pay subsidy thus resorting to the NNPC. Look, the President took the right decision by removing the subsidy right from his first day in office. If he had waited for just two weeks, people would come to him and say, it is not possible, that he should not do that.
“I believe it is the right decision. That is the mark of leadership. If this decision is not taken, the country would be worse off. What we are experiencing now, even though it is painful, is still better than if we had deferred the decision.
“A leader must take painful decisions; you must not say that for now, I want to be popular. In another one year, you won’t be able to run the government but now we can still manage the situation.
“ I believe as time goes on, we will begin to see the gains of these decisions in our economy and things will start shaping up. The government will create an enabling environment for people to thrive and ultimately enhance the socio-economic development of the country.”
