N1trn Saved Since Subsidy Removal — Tinubu

President Bola Tinubu, on Monday, said the Federal Government had saved over one trillion Naira since the removal of fuel subsidy.

Tinubu said this in his nationwide broadcast on current economic challenges in the country, adding that the money will now be channeled into intervention programmes targeting families nationwide.

Tinubu’s words: “In a little over two months, we have saved over a trillion Naira that would have been squandered on the unproductive fuel subsidy, which only benefitted smugglers and fraudsters.

“I plead with you to please have faith in our ability to deliver and in our concern for your well-being.

“All of our good and helpful plans are in the works. More importantly, I know that they will work.”

While acknowledging the hardship occasioned by an unavoidable lag in palliative measures these past 62 days, he urged Nigerians to “look beyond the present temporary pains and aim at the larger picture.”

President Tinubu also said that the economic defects he is fighting to correct were benefitting only the rich, which was why fuel subsidy had to go and other fiscal policies were being implemented.

Tinubu said: “I had promised to reform the economy for the long-term good by fighting the major imbalances that had plagued our economy.

“Ending the subsidy and the preferential exchange rate system were key to this fight. This fight is to define the fate and future of our nation. Much is in the balance.

“Thus, the defects in our economy immensely profited a tiny elite, the elite of the elite you might call them.

“As we moved to fight the flaws in the economy, the people who grow rich from them, predictably, will fight back through every means necessary.