The National Vice-President of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South-East, Dr Ijeoma Arodiogbu, has urged Nigerians to maintain their support for President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He described the removal of fuel subsidy as a decisive policy that increased the financial capacity of the Federal Government and state governments to meet critical obligations, including the payment of salaries, pensions and gratuities.
Reacting to a statement by President Tinubu, Arodiogbu said the President’s explanation of the difficult but necessary decisions taken at the beginning of his administration deserved the understanding and continued support of Nigerian.
In a statement issued in Awka, Anambra State, Arodiogbu described the President’s comments as a sober, factual and necessary reminder of the economic realities Nigeria faced at the start of the current administration.
He argued that the decision to remove the fuel subsidy freed substantial resources previously consumed by what he described as an opaque and unsustainable subsidy regime.
According to him, the additional resources have enabled the Federal Government and many state governments to meet salary, pension and gratuity obligations that were previously in arrears or at risk of default.
“The subsidy removal was not a political decision; it was an economic necessity. It guaranteed the payment of salaries, pensions and gratuity across the federation.
“Without that difficult choice, the country would have slid deeper into fiscal collapse, and the naira would have lost whatever value it still retained,” Arodiogbu stated.
He noted that before the reform, many states struggled to meet their monthly wage obligations, while pensioners in several parts of the country experienced prolonged delays in receiving their entitlements.
According to him, the increased fiscal space created by subsidy removal has improved the ability of many state governments to meet these obligations.
Arodiogbu urged Nigerians to look beyond the temporary hardships associated with the reform and consider what he described as its long-term benefits for public finances.
“We must keep faith with President Tinubu in 2027. The same courage that confronted the fiscal crisis and restored the capacity of governments to pay workers and pensioners is the courage Nigeria still needs to complete the journey of economic recovery and national renewal,” he said.
He maintained that the January 16, 2027, Presidential and National Assembly elections would present Nigerians with a choice between continuing with what he described as difficult but necessary economic reforms and returning to the fiscal policies he believes brought the naira close to losing its value.
