The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the nation’s president, Femi Adesina in a live Radio interview monitored by Naij.com on Radio Continental 102.3 FM in the morning of Friday, January 9 affirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari will surprise Nigerians in 2016 with good economic policies and sterling leadership qualities.
Below are excerpts from the interview on how President Buhari will surprise Nigerians this year.
Femi Adesina, special adviser on media and publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari
When the special adviser to the president was asked about the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and other burning economic-related issues, he had this to say:
“The situation we had where every body uses his own money and then just sends a token to the federal government. There was no way you would put together that pool of money. The TSA is a work in progress and I believe after a short while it is going to be easier to secure the fund and go about how to utilise the money accordingly.”
The issue of the state of security in Nigeria was mentioned in regards to the Vigilante groups who have been assisting the security operatives especially in the North-East of the state as well as the plan of the government on state police.
“Yes! I know that the All Progressives Congress (APC) led federal government had some promises in that respect. Don’t forget that the APC promised to look at the federation and re-tool it to work. And part of what they (that is the APC government) promised that in the life of the administration, something will be done about it (that is the need for state policing).”
In the regards to the issue that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) vowing to call Nigerians out for strike based on claims by the union that subsidy removal will bring untold hardship to the citizens and that its removal is a booby trap which will lead to increase in prices of commodities in the market. The special adviser to the president shed light on the policy of the government on subsidy removal.
“Yes, thank you. I think what we have in the oil industry. hmm. Some people said it will bring hardship. What hardship can be greater than what Nigerians passed through in the last 4, 5, 6 years? Queuing endlessly to buy petrol and at the end of the day buying it for N200 per litre, N250 litre and N300 per litre.
“What hardship can be greater than that? On the flip-side, I think what we are entering into now (that is subsidy removal) is what will make life easier for Nigerians. Getting petrol. Making sure that the supply is sustained because crude oil prices are down. Yesterday, it dropped to 34 dollar per barrel of Brent crude oil. Another variant of crude oil barrel price was as low as 29 dollar per barrel. So if crude is at that level, why should Nigerians pay so high for refined petrol?
“And that is what government has done. And now that crude price is down, this is the appropriate time to do the proper pricing for our petrol. That is now why we have N86 from NNPC and N86.50 from other marketers. And it has also been said that this (that is pump price of petrol) will be subject to review at every quarter. That is if oil prices go up again, it might affect how much we buy petrol. This is just a regime of common sense. Every Nigerian will soon appreciate. Labour, I am sure will look at the matter again and know that it will be better off that Nigerians get petrol at affordable prices rather than a subsidy regime that is fraud with corruption.”