Reforms: States now buoyant, governors no longer have excuse for non-performance—Adeyeye

A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Sen. Dayo Adeyeye has hailed the impacts of the various  economic  reforms of President Bola Tinubu.

By Adeyemi Adeleye

A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Sen. Dayo Adeyeye has hailed the impacts of the various  economic  reforms of President Bola Tinubu.

Adeyeye, National Chairman,South West Agenda For Asiwaju (SWAGA), a Tinubu support group, made the commendation while speaking with newsmen in Lagos.

He said the reforms, particularly the removal of fuel subsidy and equalisation of exchange rates, had saved the economy from collapse.

According to him, the reforms  have strengthened governance , making more resources available for all tiers of government for development.

The APC chieftain said with more resources now available  to fulfil their governance obligations, state governors no longer have  an excuse for non-performance.

“They (governors) have money. Their revenue has tripled. No state government should complain. Some of them do not even know what to do with the money as  they are wasting it. It is unfortunate.

“However, some governments are doing well and when you see what they have achieved, you will want to say, what are the others doing?”

“The president has created a system whereby all the tiers of government can function effectively.

“They have this revenue. All the tiers of government, local government, state government, and federal government, now they can function well,” Adeyeye said.

He said the President ,since assumption of office,had not  tampered with the revenue allocation arrangement,  allowing the system to flow normally according to the way  prescribed by the constitution.

“So the state governments are in the best of days. What we now need to do is to hold them accountable and then to ask them to perform at the same level in which the federal government is performing.No more excuse for non-performance, ” he said

Speaking further on the successes of the administration’s reforms, Adeyeye recalled how the nation was borrowing to pay debts, to subsidise fuel and foreign exchange before the President assumed office in 2023.

He said  if Tinubu not taken the measures he took shortly after he was sworn-in , especially the removal of fuel subsidy and floating of Naira, the economy would have collapsed completely.

“By the time President Buhari was leaving, many of the state governments were owing salaries, they couldn’t pay. Some state governments were owing salaries for up to nine months  and all that.

“There was little or no money for infrastructure at all because we wanted to  subsidise  fuel.

“When we subsidised the fuel, almost half of the fuel we were importing and subsidising was going to neighboring countries,so we were  subsidising for Benin, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and others.

“So it was not sustainable. Things had to change.We cannot  continue to deceive ourselves,  living on borrowed money and consuming the future of our  children.

“The economy was in a fragile state when the President came on board and he took the appropriate steps to save the situation,”he said.

He said the President was aware of the consequences of his reforms ,and had been taking steps to mitigate the effects on the people.

Adeyeye urged citizens to be patient and support  the Tinubu administration’s efforts to reposition the country. (NAN)