According to Dele Alake, President Bola Tinubu’s spokesperson, he will address Nigerians at 7 p.m. today (Monday).
“Television, radio stations and other electronic media outlets are enjoined to hook up to the network services of the Nigerian Television Authority and Radio Nigeria for the broadcast,” Alake said.
The agenda for the broadcast is not yet known as of press time but it might not be unconnected to the economic pain experienced by Nigerians amid the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) known as petrol.
There seemed to be no respite for Nigerians after President Bola Tinubu, in his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023, announced the removal of petrol subsidy.
With the announcement, the pump price of a litre of petrol rose from N184 to N500. About two months later, the price jumped from N500 to over N617 on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, eliciting anger and criticisms from economically stranded citizens.
Mid-July, Nigeria’s headline inflation rose to 22.79% in June from the 22.41% recorded in May 2023 amid soaring food prices and rising cost of transportation occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy.
The unprecedented fuel prices come amid the floating of the naira by the Tinubu administration.
As the economy bites harder, the Tinubu administration announced its plan to pay 12 million household N8,000 subsidy palliative for six months but the move attracted stark rebuke and the Federal Government made a U-turn and ordered a review of the plan.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Tinubu administration to reverse “all anti-poor” people policies including the hike in the price of petrol.
The labour union rejected the palliative to be rolled out by the new administration and threatened to embark on a nationwide protest from Wednesday, August 2, 2023 should the Federal Government fail to do the needful.