President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday said that he would not deliberately inflict suffering on Nigerians but that courageous decision must be taken in order to move the country forward.
Speaking at Christmas Carol Night at the Banquet Hall of State House Abuja yesterday, he said even though the planned withdrawal of subsidy would engender a little discomfort, such situation was not expected to last for too long. "There is no way we can continue to run the economy this way. People find it difficult to do things that appear not to be popular and I know that one of the things that worry us is the fear of the unknown. If there is subsidy, what will life be? Yes, we know there will be little pain because we know ourselves Nigerians, sometimes, we exploit opportunities," he noted.
Giving analogy with the introduction of Global System of Mobile communication (GSM) in the country, Jonathan recalled that when it was introduced some dealers were hoarding the Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card as they cashed in on the new development to exploit other citizens.
According to him, the case of the removal might also be like that because of the attitude of some people but things will become better in the end as the economy would expand on its own.
He said he did not want to discuss the issue of deregulation at the occasion but for the fact that it was now being mentioned in religious houses.
The President appealed to religious leaders to join government in the effort to improve the economy.
He said government has been borrowing money to run its affairs and such borrowing had continued to increase, jeopardizing the future of the country.
DailyTrust