Why we did not protest against fuel subsidy removal – Tunde Bakare

Founder of the Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare has explained why he and other pro-democracy groups did not protest against fuel subsidy removal by President Muhammad Buhari.
Bakare, alongside his Save Nigeria Group had in 2012 kicked against the removal of subsidy by the then president Goodluck Jonathan.


The cleric said they protested because they wanted former President Jonathan to investigate the subsidy regime and recover stolen funds before commencing the discourse on subsidy removal.

“We have not changed our earlier conviction in spite of a change in government. We have only acknowledged that the new government has persistently demonstrated its anti-corruption stance while seeking policy solutions to the economic crisis, though there have been gaps in policy management.”

“We had expected that, in response to our call earlier in the year, the government would have consulted extensively with stakeholders and embarked upon extensive communication and enlightenment campaigns across the social spectrum, with particular attention to the middle class and the grassroots, on the new price regime prior to its introduction.

“This would have been a better-received sequence than the sudden policy introduction and the after-the-fact approach to informing and enlightening Nigerians.”