President Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday evening met with Vice President Kashim Shettima, Senate President Godswill Akpabio and some state Governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The meeting comes on the eve of the administration’s second National Economic Council meeting scheduled to hold at the State House on Thursday morning.
Although the details of Wednesday’s closed-door meeting are not yet public, The PUNCH gathered that the meeting was convened by the President as part of steps to restructure the economy.
Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, Mr Dele Alake, said the leaders also considered final arrangements to distribute palliatives to soften the effect of the fuel subsidy removal.
Also in the meeting were some state governors, including the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State.
The Chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, Hope Uzodinma of Imo, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos and his Ogun State counterpart, Dapo Abiodun were present.
On Tuesday, President Tinubu said his administration will review its earlier plan to distribute monthly cash grants of N8,000 to 12 million households for six months as part of efforts to assuage the hardship occasioned by fuel subsidy removal.
This followed widespread criticism of the policy with organised labour saying it falls far from the level of intervention required to ease the pains of vulnerable Nigerians.
“The President has directed that the N8,000 conditional cash transfer programmed envisaged to bring succour to most vulnerable households be reviewed immediately,” a statement signed by Mr Alake read late Tuesday.
Hours earlier the pump price of petrol had risen from N540/litre to N617/litre
Since assuming office on May 29, Tinubu had discontinued the petrol subsidy, unified the exchange rates and signed four Executive Orders to ease public tax burdens.
