Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has decried the manner in which President Bola Tinubu removed fuel subsidies.

He said the haphazard and unilateral removal of subsidy engendered galloping inflation that plunged the citizens into severe economic hardship.

He stated that the present administration should have first taken into account the hardship the subsidy removal could cause people and how to cushion it.

Speaking in an interview with Financial Times, Obasanjo said subsidy has been restored and the Tinubu government is currently subsidising petrol.

“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. Not just wake up one morning and say you removed the subsidy. Because of inflation, the subsidy that we have removed is not gone. It has come back,” the former President stressed.

He said there must be investor confidence in Nigeria, adding, “You have to go from transactional economy to transformational economy.”

Obasanjo expressed concern over youths’ restiveness caused by unemployment, fearing that Nigeria might be sitting on a keg of gunpowder.

“Our youth are restive. And they are restive because they have no skill. They have no empowerment. They have no employment. We are all sitting on a keg of gunpowder. And my prayer is that we will do the right thing before it’s too late,” he warned.