We Increased Funds For States After Subsidy Removal, Do What You’re Elected For And Stop Distracting Tinubu –Nigerian Govt Tells PDP Govs
February 18, 2024
This is contained in a press statement signed by Rabiu Ibrahim, Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister of Information and National Orientation on Sunday.
The Bola Tinubu-led Nigerian Government has told the state governors from the opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to focus more on their duties in their respective states.
This is contained in a press statement signed by Rabiu Ibrahim, Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister of Information and National Orientation on Sunday.
The statement said the government after the removal of the fuel subsidy in May 2023 had increased the revenues of all 36 states including FCT and the state governors are expected to use the money for the socioeconomic growth of their states.
On Saturday, the PDP governors advised President Tinubu to resign over the state of the nation if he cannot provide sustainable solutions to the country’s challenges.
Reacting to this, the information ministry described the PDP governors’ advice as a mere distraction for the President.
He said, “The call is nothing but an attempt at distraction by people who should instead be busy supporting the President’s efforts at bringing economic relief to the Nigerian people. It is our considered view that the PDP and its Governors should not be seeking, through the back door of intimidation, what they have consistently failed to achieve by democratic means, since 2015.
“Those who could not bring transformational change when they had a lengthy chance to, should not seek to interrupt or distract those who are busy at work on the presidential vision that Nigerians elected them to implement.
“The administration of President Bola Tinubu has also, since inception, generously extended financial support to all the State Governments, regardless of partisan affiliation. In addition, the removal of the petrol subsidy—which, incidentally, was one of the main planks of the PDP presidential campaign—has swelled the revenues of all States, including the PDP States. To whom more has been given, more is therefore expected.
According to the ministry, Tinubu is committed to revamping Nigeria's economy, prioritising infrastructure, social welfare, military and security agency equipment, and reclaiming its strategic position in the global community.
He continued: “Nigerians have not forgotten that it was the APC administration that cleared several liabilities left behind by the PDP government, such as subsidy claims by oil marketers, Paris Club Refunds, unpaid pensions, gratuities, and salary arrears owed various categories of pensioners from liquidated and existing State-Owned Enterprises.
“Major oil sector reforms that the PDP touted for years but could not deliver – passage of the PIB, new refineries, as well as the revamp of existing ones, and so on – are the very real and continuing legacies of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“All of these have been accomplished without access to the oil windfall that the PDP government enjoyed for much of the time that it was in power, and also against the backdrop of the most devastating global shock since the Second World War: the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We must continue to state these facts so Nigerians will know where we are coming from, and appreciate what is being done in its full context.
“President Tinubu is not and will never be overwhelmed by the current challenges the country is facing. He will not abdicate his responsibilities. He will courageously continue to wrestle with the challenges and surmount them, laying a durable foundation for the new Nigeria that is emerging.
“He has also never shied away from acknowledging the pain of ongoing reforms, and has seized every opportunity to assure Nigerians that inside the pain of the reforms lie the seeds of lasting prosperity and national development.
“To the PDP Governors, let us reiterate: This is not the time for distraction. It is time instead for the rolling up of sleeves, to support and complement the hard work of the President and his administration.”
SaharaReporters
We Increased Funds For States After Subsidy Removal, Do What You’re Elected For And Stop Distracting Tinubu –Nigerian Govt Tells PDP Govs. 
|
