News Investigators/ Vice-President Kashim Shettima has reaffirmed the commitment of the President Bola Tinubu’s administration to inclusive governance and responsive policymaking rooted in wide-ranging public engagement and empathy.
A statement by the spokesperson of the vice-president, Stanley Nkwocha, said Shettima spoke in Kaduna at a two-day interactive session on Government – Citizens’ Engagement, organised by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation.
He said instead of governing Nigeria from a distance, the administration of Tinubu was walking hand in hand with the people through critical national reforms.
The vice-president said the Nigerian leader has demonstrated time and again that his administration was “neither crafting policy in solitude nor assuming that technocracy alone delivers results.”
Represented by Dr Aliyu Modibbo, Special Adviser to The President on General Duties (Office of the Vice-President), Shettima declared that the Tinubu administration was convening conversations and institutionalising listening.
“It is always a privilege to gather under the luminous legacy of Sir Ahmadu Bello, his memory reminds us that leadership is not simply about occupying office, but about shouldering the burden of service.
”What we nurture today is not just a government of the people but a government with the people,” he said.
Shettima highlighted several reforms of the administration where public inputs significantly shaped final outcomes, including tax policy, education access, and economic relief measures following the removal of fuel subsidies.
On the students’ loan law, which was initially passed as the Access to Higher Education Act, he said in response, the administration repealed and reenacted the law.
Shettima said, ” Removing income ceilings and guarantor barriers that had become symbolic walls between ambition and opportunity.”
The vice-president reiterated government’s belief that “no student should be disqualified for being born on the wrong side of poverty.”
On tax reforms, Shettima said the administration established a Presidential Tax and Fiscal Reform Committee to engaged stakeholders from across the country to address grey areas in the reforms.
” When objections arose from governors and citizens alike, the President did not dismiss them.
“He welcomed their candour and ensured tax bills passed through public hearings.
” Even unpopular taxes inherited from past regimes, like the 10% single-use plastic levy and telecom tax, were suspended after critical review,” he stated.
Shettima also spoke about the contentious issue of fuel subsidy removal, saying the Tinubu government acknowledged the hardship faced by ordinary Nigerians and accompanied the policy with strategic responses.
He continued: “We met with labour unions not with threats, but with empathy.
“We offered palliative packages, increased wages, waived diesel taxes, and introduced alternatives like CNG buses to cushion transport costs.
“We were not merely reacting. We were responding.”
The vice-president said the reforms in other sectors of the economy followed the same pattern of engaging with the people and making necessary adjustments to the original propositions where necessary.
He further noted that every step of the way, Tinubu showed concern for the people.
He emphasised, “Governance is not a theatre of perfection but a process of correction and a government that listens is a government that learns.
” And a government that learns is a government that leads.”
He applauded the foundation for sustaining the legacy of the late Premier of Northern Nigeria, describing it as “a torch of civic dialogue that must never be extinguished.”
NAN
