Katsina State Governor, Dikko Umar Radda, has shared a personal conversation he had with the late President Muhammadu Buhari, revealing Buhari’s thoughts on President Bola Tinubu’s bold move to remove the fuel subsidy.
Speaking with journalists during Buhari’s burial ceremony in Daura on Tuesday, Governor Radda said the former president once told him he pitied Tinubu for having the courage to remove the controversial subsidy.
Quoting Buhari, Radda said: “Let me use his words: ‘I pity Bola (President Tinubu) for what he is doing. He is a brave man for removing the fuel subsidy.’”
Buhari reportedly told him that when he was in power, every attempt to scrap the subsidy faced strong resistance from various groups and advisers, making it difficult to act. But Tinubu, Buhari noted, went ahead with the decision without delay.
“If he had consulted people, he could not have removed the fuel subsidy now,” Buhari told him, according to Radda.
The late president passed away on Sunday at a clinic in London at the age of 82 and was buried on Tuesday in his hometown of Daura, Katsina State, with full military honours. The burial was attended by top government officials, including President Tinubu.
Governor Radda also expressed deep sorrow over Buhari’s death, saying it has created a vacuum that will be hard to fill, especially in the political history of Northern Nigeria and the country at large.