The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, has defended President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms, stressing that Nigerians across political and social divides had agreed on the removal of fuel subsidy and other key policy changes.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, Yilwatda described the reforms as unavoidable and argued that they are already yielding results.
“All Nigerians accepted that we needed those changes at that point in time. No political party, no commentator, almost everybody across the country said that we must remove the subsidy. Almost all the candidates agreed that the parallel forex is not in the interest of Nigeria. Almost all of them believed in the reforms, the tax reforms. So all the reforms that we’ve taken as a government, they were necessary reforms that the country needed at this juncture in time,” he said.
According to him, the policies have significantly boosted government revenues and improved service delivery across the federation.
“Just last month, the federal, state, and local governments at FEC shared ₦2 trillion, coming from a situation where before now, they shared barely about ₦500 billion,” Yilwatda explained.
He added that many states that once struggled to meet salary obligations are now financially stable.
“If you recall, in 2023, about 24 states of the Federation were actually borrowing, and some of them weren’t able to pay salaries. Today, no single state owes salaries. All state governors, all local governments have been able to pay salaries up to date,” he said.
The APC chairman maintained that Tinubu’s reforms are not only strengthening the federal government but also trickling down to state and local governments, ensuring better service delivery nationwide.
