President Bola Tinubu has held organisers responsible for the deadly stampedes that occurred during the distribution of relief materials in three Nigerian cities.
In the past week, chaotic scenes in Ibadan, Anambra and Abuja led to the deaths of over 60 people, including children, as crowds scrambled for food items.
During a Presidential Media Chat on Monday, Tinubu described the events as a critical failure in planning and execution.
“It is very sad that people are not well organised. We just have to be more disciplined in our society, condolences to those who lost a family member.
“I see this as a very grave error on the part of the organisers.
“It is good to give, I have been giving out foodstuffs, commodities including envelopes for the last 25 years, I have never experienced this kind of incident because we are organised, disciplined. And if you know you don’t have enough to give, don’t attempt to even publicize it,” Tinubu said.
The former Lagos governor also said he has no plans to reduce his cabinet or sack more ministers.
“I am not prepared to bring down the size of my cabinet because efficiency has been at the core of my selection of ministers.”, he said.
For the controversial tax reform bills, he said it has come to stay.
“Tax reform is here to stay; we cannot just continue to do what we were doing years to years in today’s economy. We cannot retool this economy with the old broken books, and I believe I have that capacity that is why I went into the race.
“I am focused on what Nigeria needs and what I must do for Nigeria, it is not just going to be eldorado for everybody, but the new dawn is here, I am convinced, and you should be convinced”, he said.
He also revealed he has no regrets removing fuel subsidy.
“I don’t have any regrets whatsoever in removing petrol subsidy. We are spending our future, we were just deceiving ourselves, that reform was necessary.”
Tinubu said petrol subsidy removal some 18 months ago have increased competition within the sector and that the pump price of petrol has gradually crashed.
“The market is being saturated. No monopoly, no oligopoly, a free market economy flowing,” he said.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain also said he does not believe in price control and he won’t go that path.
“I don’t believe in price control, we will work hard to supply the market,” he said.
He also declared utmost confidence in his security chiefs saying over the past decades, wanton killings has reduced drastically.
