Former Lagos state governor and chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu has advocated for the transformation of Nigeria by the present administration through impactful reforms, creating more jobs, providing social policy initiatives and building a befitting infrastructure.
Tinubu who was a guest speaker at the 15th edition of the annual Daily Trust dialogue which held in Abuja yesterday also advised that the 2019 general elections must be a contest of different visions for the nation’s present and future.
Tinubu who was represented at the event by Mr. Wale Edun, a former Commissioner for Finance in Lagos State said the current fuel subsidy regime which caused more problems than it cured must be reformed.
“The subsidy does not benefit the average person. It sweetly profits the elite who manipulate the program to their own advantage. We need to allow market forces to more directly determine price. We need to open the now closed market to more suppliers. In this way, we may better harmonise supply and demand, where they do the most sustainable economic good.
“The challenge we face leading into 2019 is not to fall backward in governance and development as we move forward in time. Reform and change are difficult because they are always and everywhere resisted by those who benefit from the old order.
“But we must insist on a better life for our people. As such, the electoral politics of 2019 cannot be played as if it is a game that has no end other than itself. Here again, we must insist on politics having a nobler and larger goal than just registering certain people into the fraternity of officeholders. People must not only aspire and hold office; they must seek to govern prudently from that office. This is the challenge of 2019. Shall our elections be a game in and of itself or will it be a platform from which we continue to move toward the progressive, responsive governance Nigeria deserves,” he said.
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