Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, has said that many Nigerians have short memories by blaming the current administration for the state of the country.

Onanuga made this statement during an interview programme on Arise News Television.

He said that the government has never failed to acknowledge the fact that there is hardship and suffering caused by the President’s decision to end fuel subsidy, but maintained that the Tinubu administration was doing everything within its power to bring normalcy to the economy.

Onanuga said, “Many Nigerians sometimes exhibit the problem of lack of memory. We have very short memories; we forget where we started from, and we just start blaming President Tinubu for all the problems that Nigeria is going through. In 2023, when Tinubu took over the government, there were fuel shortages in this country.

“I remember, for instance, in May 2023, when Tinubu took over the government, there was a fuel shortage in this country. If we forgot that all through the election that year, there was a fuel shortage.

“So when the President announced on day one that he was removing fuel subsidy, the immediate reaction by NNPC, which has been the major supplier of fuel, was to increase the pump price, because, as at that time, NNPC was more willing to import fuel.

“NNPC was saying the federal government owed it over 4 trillion Naira, and it was also owing its suppliers abroad. So what the federal government did, what President Tinubu did, was to bring some life into NNPC, to resume importing fuel, so that fuel can be available. People forget that easily.

“There was no way Nigeria could have sustained the regime of fuel subsidy. No way, because the resources are just not there, and we are just spending the money that ought to belong to the future generation. So the government just had to do the right thing.

“Yeah, problems followed. What the President did… this government has been honest in admitting some of the problems, some of the fallouts of the consequence of removing fuel subsidy, and has been taking a lot of measures to ameliorate the pains of Nigerians.”