#EndBadGovernance protest: Poverty will worsen if petrol subsidy returns — NOA boss

The Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lanre Issa-Onilu, on Wednesday, urged Nigerians to map out survival strategies amid the economic fallout of the removal of petrol subsidy, adding that poverty will worsen if petrol subsidy is returned, as being demanded by #EndBadGovernance protesters.

Issa-Onilu who  stated this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily breakfast show, said“Anybody who is making a demand that subsidy removal should be brought back is making an emotional demand, not an economic demand because you have to also prove that if it is brought back, it will solve the issue of poverty; it will not, it will aggravate it.

“So, what we should be doing is: How do we survive in spite of the removal?’ We need to promote all the efforts of this government to ensure that we survive without that subsidy.”

He also admitted the trust deficit between leaders and followers in the country due to repeated cases of broken promises over the years.

Issa-Onilu added, “It is difficult to talk to a people who have for several years been let down. Nigerians feel let down. The first question they ask you is: ‘Is this another promise that will not be kept?’ So, we must prove to Nigerians that this government is keeping to its promises.”

On Sunday, President Bola Tinubu ruled out the return of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) famously known as petrol.

During a broadcast to over 200 million Nigerians after days of unbroken nationwide #EndBadGovernance protests economic hardship, the President said the removal of subsidy on petrol was a painful but necessary decision he took for economic reforms.

The return of petrol and electricity subsidies has been some of the very clear demands of young Nigerians who took to the streets since Thursday to protest the economic woes confronting the country.

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