Veteran journalist Azubuike Ishiekwene has praised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for tackling the corruption in Nigeria’s oil industry through the removal of the petrol subsidy.
He made the remarks during an interview with Rudolf Okonkwo of 90MinutesAfrica on Saturday.
The Editor-in-chief of the Leadership Newspaper said that he had met many people who despised the president, but one thing that they all agreed on is that “the president has so far been able to do certain things that governments since 1976 have not been able to tackle especially as it concerns corruption around the oil economy.”
President Tinubu announced the removal of the petrol subsidy on May 29, 2023, during his swearing-in ceremony at Eagle Square. The policy resulted in one of the worst inflations the country had ever known, leading to a further deterioration in the standard of living of the people.
While acknowledging the tough economic situation caused by the policy, Ishiekwene believed it was necessary. “Though Nigerians are hurting from that policy decision but I think we had kicked the can down the road for too many decades and it is now taking a man of significant courage to finally deal with that.”
The author of the book, “Writing for Media and Monetizing It” further said although President Tinubu has been able to curb the corruption in the oil sector, there are still some “inefficiencies” in the operations of the state oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) that he still needs to fix. He stated that these inefficiencies in the NNPCL are responsible for the over seven trillion naira petrol subsidy that the nation still owes.
