President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made public what happened behind the scene in his efforts to avert crisis arising from his announcement of the removal of the oil subsidy regime.
Tinubu had in his inaugural speech pronounced the end of the oil subsidy following which the organised labour threatened industrial action.
Speaking during an interactive session with Nigerians in the Diaspora resident in France, and neighbouring European countries, on the sidelines of the New Global Financing pact Summit in Paris, the President said among others, that he made the declaration against the particular wish of his close associates as the part was not in the speech.
“A few friends visited me rejoicing. So I asked the question: ‘You asked me to bring this trophy. This victory, what do you do with it?
“I brought it. I won. We must achieve with it. We must change Nigeria with it. And then Wale Edun and co, we started debating, putting my speech together without the question on subsidy.
“I got to the podium, I was possessed with courage, and I said subsidy is gone. They thought it was the joke of the century until I called NNPC,” he told the gathering.
Making public his role in averting the cloud of protest that gathered over the subsidy removal from raining down, Tinubu said he threatened organised labour with a counter-protest.
“You want money increase in palliative, transportation… what are you protesting about? Are you sharing part of the subsidy? If you protest I will join you and protest against. And they stopped. No protest.
“Palliatives we will get, but we have to save the money in order to embark on palliative,” he recounted.
