Atedo Peterside, a foremost business man and Founder, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, has demanded an unreserved apology from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to former President Good luck Jonathan for removing petrol subsidy.
President Tinubu had announced during his inauguration as President and Commander-in-chief on May 29, that subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit aka petrol “is gone”.
The president’s statement has pushed the price of the product beyond the reach of many Nigerians, who are demanding a reversal to old price.
The government, on its part, said the decision is for the good of the country, that the current state of paucity of funds would not allow the government to continue with the multi-billion subsidy regime.
But as a member of a committee set up by former President Jonathan, Peterside criticised the president and others who rejected the decision of the former president to remove subsidy on petrol in 2012.
According to him, those that were against the removal of subsidy at the time, forced the Jonathan’s government to abandon the policy by embarking on a massive demonstration in Lagos and other parts of the country, apart from making incendiary comments against the former administration.
For instance, President Tinubu as one of those opposed to the policy, wrote a scathing letter to former President Jonathan, on why he must abandon the policy for being unpopular with many Nigerians.
In the letter dated January 11, 2012, Tinubu said ” I’ m not calling President Jonathan an evil man. I do not believe he is perverse. However, the economic ideas controlling him are so misguided that they have a perverse impact. Because he is slave to wrong-headed economics, the people will become enslaved to greater misery. This crisis will bear his name and will be his legacy. The people now pay a steep tax for voting him into office. The removal of the subsidy is the “Jonathan tax.”
“This situation shows that ideas count more than personalities. People may occupy office but how that person performs depends on the ideas that occupy his mind.
“Though someday, Nigeria will have to remove the subsidy, the time to do it is not now. This subsidy removal is ill-timed and violates the condition precedent necessary before such a decision is made. First, government needs to clean up and throw away the salad of corruption in the NNPC.
” Then, proceed to lay the foundation for a mass transit system in the railways and road network with long term bonds and fully develop the energy sector towards revitalizing Nigeria’s economy and easing the burden any subsidy removal may have on the people,” the former Lagos Governor said at the time.
Reacting in his official tweet on Sunday, Peterside, an investment banker and one of the respected business men in the country said, “The petrol subsidy removal is complicated by the fact some liars who held sway in 2012 are now singing a different tune in 2023.
“They should apologise to @GEJonathan @PeterObi @NOIweala & others in the 2012 Economic Team & beg Nigerians for forgiveness so we can move forward.”
Peterside criticism is coming barely 48 hours after the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, issued a five-day ultimatum to the federal government, to revert to the old pump price failure which it’s members, will embark on an indefinite nationwide strike.
The ultimate ends this Wednesday, on June 7, 2023.
