BREAKING: 'Why I did not remove fuel subsidy' - Buhari opens up, faults APC

Former President Muhammadu Buhari has commended President Bola Tinubu on the removal of the fuel subsidy removal while explaining why his administration did not take the move.

The former President in a statement by his immediate media aide, Garba Shehu, said the allegation that the immediate past administration failed to remove the fuel subsidy is unfounded and uncalled for.

According to Shehu, the former President expected the All Progressives Congress (APC) to provide clarity on the notion that the previous administration of Buhari crippled the country's economy over its failure to remove the subsidy.

He explained that the ex-President Buhari's reign removed other subsidies and this is what he expected the ruling party to explain to the Nigerian public but failed to do so.

According to Shehu, the removal of the fuel subsidy was not a unilateral decision that the President can wake up in a day and take action upon.

He said: "The decision to remove subsidies, as in our case - and we believe in all situations - was not for the President to take all by himself."

Buhari's spokesperson noted that ex-President Muhammadu Buhari remove subsidies on diesel, aviation fuel, LPFO, Kerosene, cooking gas, and other policies.

Shehu then stressed that: "So no, Buhari didn’t remove the petrol subsidy – but in vitally important stages he removed every other budget-busting, egregious, economic-growth-crushing subsidy along the way."

See Shehu's statement in a tweet:

BUHARI DIDN’T FAIL TO REMOVE SUBSIDY.

Why did it take the new Tinubu/ Shettima presidency weeks to remove the petrol subsidy when Buhari didn’t do so for years fails to ask the right question.

The massive electricity subsidy. The fraudulent fertilizer subsidy. Hajj/Christian… pic.twitter.com/OCGhR0iQr3

— Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) June 26, 2023