- He said the government need to engage the people more, will need the government to explain to them why they are suffering as well as when the suffering will end.
- Abdullah said the government may have good intentions for the policies but did not prepare people for its effects on the economy.
Bolaji Abdullahi, a former minister of sports and youth development, has said that the administration of President Bola Tinubu failed to adequately educate Nigerians for the unforeseen effects of some government decisions, most notably the elimination of fuel subsidies.
Abdullahi featured in an interview on Channels TV Politics Today on Wednesday.
He said the government may have good intentions for the policies but did not prepare people for its effects on the economy.
The ex-minister said the two key policies of the government, the removal of fuel subsidy and unification of forex rate have impacted the economy in such a way that prices of commodities are soaring higher and making it more difficult for Nigerians to feed.
“What I feel is that Nigerians do not appear prepared for the kind of situations that we find ourselves in. You know when the government came on board and some measures were being introduced, those measures were intended to move the country forward to deliver on the promises that they made when they took power,” Abdullahi said
“But what didn’t happen was to prepare Nigerians for the unintended consequences of some of those actions that necessarily need to be taken because you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. So, it is in the breaking of the omelette that those kinds of situations arise where difficulties because as I said.
Nigerians do not care much when they do not find it difficult to feed but they are beginning to care now that is getting harder for them to feed.
“Nigerians really don’t care much when about some things. Nigerians don’t care whether you are flying your private jets or whatever.
“As long as they can enter their Maruwa and move from one point to another or enter a filling station and buy fuel and move from one point to another. You don’t care about your Louis Vuitton or sachet bag as long as they can open their pulley bag and find food in it, right?
“So it’s when that becomes difficult that all kinds of questions begin to come up and they begin to look at the kind of tie you are wearing, begin to look at the cost of your wristwatch, you know.”
“I think it is something that needs to happen but not adding that to the issue of what subsidy removal, the issue of Forex and, and naira, then the issue of hunger in the land.
“Then you add implementing another committee report that is likely to create losers who are going to people who are going to lose their jobs. I think it will be too much and the government needs to be very careful.”
He said the government need to engage more, adding that the people will need the government to explain to them why they are suffering as well as when the suffering will end.
Abdullahi says he believed that implementing the report at the moment when people are still grappling with the fuel subsidy removal and forex unification will put more pressure on the government since that may result in some people losing their jobs.