The Minister of Regional Development, Abubakar Momoh, has described the economic reforms of President Bola Tinubu as bold measures to prepare Nigeria for a future of shared prosperity.

Momoh stated this on Monday in Benin City, Edo State while delivering the 55th Founder’s Day Lecture of the University of Benin, the minister, who is also an alumnus of the institution, spoke on the topic, ‘Reforms for a shared prosperity.’

The guest lecturer noted that many Nigerians feeling the immediate pains of the ongoing reforms might not fully understand why the government had to take decisive action on long-standing structural distortions in the economy.

According to him, Tinubu inherited entrenched problems that previous administrations lacked the political courage to confront.

He asserted that the removal of petrol subsidy on the President’s first day in office was one of the most critical steps to rescue the economy from a system that drained resources and incentivised smuggling, rent-seeking, and corruption. No previous administration had summoned the courage to confront this situation until President Bola Ahmed Tinubu introduced decisive reforms.

“On 29 May 2023, during his inauguration, President Tinubu made the historic declaration: ‘Subsidy is gone.’ That was the first major reform by the administration – bold, necessary, and collective,” he stated.