President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said he could have chosen to maintain the hitherto multiple foreign exchange systems and benefit from it, but instead opted to unify the official and parallel market rates to save the country from financial haemorrhage.

Dele Alake, the Special Adviser, Special Duties, Communications and Strategy to the President, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.

He said Tinubu was speaking at a civic reception organised in his honour by the Lagos State Government at the Lagos House, Marina.

Tinubu said he decided that forex unification was in the nation’s best interest, just like he did with fuel subsidy removal.

“I could afford to share the benefit by participating in the arbitrage, but God forbid! That’s not why you voted for me,” he said.

The President said it was imperative to take those decisive actions in the early days of his administration.

“We need to stop the bleeding of our finances through speedy action on fuel subsidies. We have no choice,” he said.

Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria had announced operational changes to the foreign exchange market, leading to the floating of Naira in the Investors and Exporters window.