Vice President Kashim Shettima has said Nigeria was on the brink of economic collapse when President Bola Tinubu assumed office in 2023, insisting that tough reforms taken by the administration prevented the country from ‘falling into pieces.’
Shettima spoke on Saturday while addressing journalists after visiting Tinubu at his residence in Ikoyi, Lagos.
According to the Vice President, Nigeria’s foreign reserves had fallen below $3.9 billion when the administration took office, a situation he said left the country unable to fund even one month of fuel imports.
‘When we assumed the mantle of leadership, our foreign reserves were a staggering below $3.9 billion that was not enough to import fuel for one month,’ Shettima said.
He defended Tinubu’s decision to remove petrol subsidy and unify the country’s multiple exchange rates, describing both measures as necessary responses to the state of the economy.
‘The withdrawal of the fuel subsidy, the realignment of the multiple exchange rate were far-reaching decisions.
‘The economy was actually on the verge of collapse. He saved the economy,’ he said.
Shettima compared Nigeria’s economic trajectory at the time to the crisis experienced in Venezuela.
‘I want Nigerians to understand this fundamental truism. We were on the road to Caracas. He saved our economy; he saved the nation from falling into pieces.’
The Vice President acknowledged the hardship facing Nigerians but said the government was introducing programmes aimed at reducing the pressure on households.
‘We appreciate the pains Nigerians are going through, but tough times do not last forever; tough people do,’ he said.
‘The government is rolling out programmes and projects to assuage the pains of our people.’
Shettima disclosed that the administration would soon launch an e-logistics programme in the North-West as well as thousands of electric tricycles, buses and taxis in other parts of the country.
‘In the next couple of weeks, we are going to launch e-logistics in the North-West. We are going to launch 10,600 electric tricycles to ease the pains of the people in the North-East, and 300 buses and e-taxis; all these are meant to ameliorate the suffering of our people,’ he said.
He also described Tinubu as a leader who has ’empathy for the common man.’
The meeting was the first public interaction between Tinubu and Shettima since the President returned from his vacation in Europe and the Vice President returned from the United Nations General Assembly in New York.