The Director-General, of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lanre Issa-Onilu has said that reversing subsidy removal will aggravate poverty in the country as demanded by #EndBadGovernance protesters. Issa-Onilu, stated this on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, while featuring on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily breakfast show.

The DG advised Nigerians to devise survival strategies amid the economic fallout of the removal of petrol subsidy by the President Bola Tinubu administration.

“Anybody who is making a demand that subsidy removal should be brought back is making an emotional demand, not an economic demand that if it’s brought back, it will solve the issue of poverty; it will not, it will aggravate it,” Issa-Onilu said.

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

Issa-Onilu, a former spokesman for the President’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), also acknowledged a lack of trust between leaders and followers in the country due to repeated cases of broken promises over the years.

“It is difficult to talk to 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,” he said.

President Bola Tinubu during his nationwide broadcast on Sunday, August 4, 2024, ruled out the return of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, popularly known as petrol.

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