The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has insisted that President Bola Tinubu will not resign due to the distress in the nation’s economy.
The minister stated this in a statement signed by his Media Special Assistant, Rabiu Ibrahim, while reacting to the governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who called on the president to resign because of the hardship facing the country.
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According to him, the call by the governors of the opposition party was nothing but an attempt at distraction by people who should be busy supporting the president’s efforts at bringing economic relief to the Nigerian people.
He noted 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.
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“The administration of President Bola Tinubu has also, since inception, generously extended financial support to all the state governments, regardless of partisan affiliations. 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,” Idris stated.
Idris explained that the president and his administration recognize the unfinished business of revamping the national economy which was kick-started by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, through programmes focused on large-scale infrastructure, social welfare, prioritizing the equipping and welfare of the military and security agencies, and reclaiming Nigeria’s strategic place in the comity of nations.
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He said Boko Haram and its affiliates, on the ascendancy in 2014/2015, had since been decimated, and similar bold gains are now being made with bandits and other criminals.
He stressed that Nigerians had 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.
He also said major oil sector reforms that the PDP touted for years but could not deliver – such as passage of the PIB, new refineries, as well as the revamp of existing ones, amongst others – were the very real and continuing legacies of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).