“I Could Have Used The Multiple Exchange Rates To Enrich Myself” – Tinubu 

Tinubu said he harmonized the currency rates to rescue the nation from financial ruin.

By Omotayo Olutekunbi

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has once again defended his choice to combine the official and parallel market rates, claiming that he could have continued to profit from the previously different foreign currency regimes.

The President announced while addressing during a civic celebration hosted in his honor by the Lagos State Government on the evening of Thursday, June 29, 2023, at the Lagos House, Marina.

“I could afford to share the benefit by participating in the arbitrage, but God forbid! That’s not why you voted for me,” he said.

Tinubu noted that his choice to float the currency, like his decision to remove fuel subsidies, was in the country’s best interests in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communications, and Strategy, Dele Alake.

He also utilized the occasion to ask for the cooperation of the governors in attendance to work with him to ensure the country’s equal growth.

President Tinubu, who expressed gratitude to the Lagos State Government for organizing the reception as well as to his friends and associates who attended, apologized to some of his friends in the audience who, he said, had been longing to see him but were unable to do so due to the demands of his office.

The President said it was imperative to take those decisive actions in the early days of his administration, adding that “We need to take the steps to stop the bleeding of our finances through speedy action on fuel subsidy. We have no choice,“.

Tinubu said as a way of ensuring good use of available resources; the government would “re-engineer the effectiveness of the control and management of our resources in order to meet the obligations to Nigerians by political officeholders.”

“We will work together with an open door policy. We will bring Nigeria from the brink to a resilient economy. I want us to be partners so that we can rescue our land and make it a born-again nation,” he noted.

“The assignment is greater than the love of the living room. We got to do the job,” he said.

While thanking visitors, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, overcome with excitement, thanked God for appointing Tinubu Nigeria’s leader.

He was hailed as a capable manager of human and financial resources with the Midas touch to turn the country’s economic fortunes around.

Speaking on behalf of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq, Governor of Kwara State and Chairman of the forum, pledged that state chief executive, regardless of party affiliation, were ready to cooperate and work with the President to make the country better and safer for all citizens.

“NGF is excited that both the President and Vice President are alumni of the Governors’ Forum. We are committed to work with a federalist who worked to get things done in a truly federal system. We reiterate our support for a renewed hope agenda regardless of our parties,” AbdulRazaq said.