Tinubu inherited terrible economic situation – Oshiomhole
The senator representing the Edo North Senatorial District, Adams Oshiomhole said President Bola Tinubu inherited terrible economic situation from the past administration.
Oshiomhole stated this during an interview with journalists shortly after his meeting with the Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, behind closed doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Tuesday.
The former governor of Edo state noted that some of the decisions taken by the President Tinubu’s administration are the first step towards revamping the economy.
He added that President Tinubu had shown courage and determination to stop the corruption of the subsidy regime and in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), while appealing to Nigerians to be patient.
Meanwhile, Oshiomhole, has expressed confidence that issues arising from the removal of fuel subsidy will be quickly resolved between the Federal Government and the organized labour.
According to him, Tinubu recognizes the impact the withdrawal of fuel subsidy is having on Nigerians and is determined to take immediate action to cushion it.
He said, “This president recognizes that the effect of the withdrawal is already here, people are already going through some level of discomfort and therefore there has to be an immediate solution to it.
“Now that immediate solution is what we discussed and the fact that we are meeting on Tuesday again shows that clearly, we realize that this is not one of those things you want to buy time because it has a real negative impact, on particularly, the most vulnerable group.
“But we have a solution to it because you are going to make savings, so take from that savings or even if it is borrowing.
“So, whatever it is, you can leverage some revenue and improve wages to cushion the cost of living, I think it is legitimate, I think it is doable, it is not something that you want to spend two to three months negotiating,” he said.
Recall that Oshiomhole was part of a meeting between the Federal Government and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Sunday.
Oshiomhole said the meeting was productive, adding that the government will consider all the demands by the TUC and revert on Tuesday.
He said that if Nigeria can save about N7 trillion by ending subsidy, the Federal Government can take part of that money and put in the wage sector “because those savings will go into the federation account which will be distributed among the three tiers of government and so every tier of government will have more money and should be able to meet the consequential increase in wages.”
