By Uche Amunike
Owing to the apprehension over the plan to remove fuel subsidy with marketers and petroleum stakeholders, the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has stated, Sunday, that Bola Tinubu’s government will decide on a date for its removal.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government stipulated that the subsidy policy would end by June, when the budget for the initiative would lapse, which has caused the present apprehension because of the likely increment of fuel price to N750 per litre.
Regardless, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) called for subsidy removal last week.
Speaking, during the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of PENGASSAN in Abuja, the president, Festus Osifo called on the government to ensure that the country’s refineries are quickly rehabilitated, so as to alleviate the hardship that will be unleashed to Nigerians when fuel subsidy is stopped.
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) on their part, has averred to resist the plan and insisted that the refineries must be functional before the subsidy can be tampered with, while the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited deduced that the country was spending over N400 billion every month on petroleum subsidy, maintaining that it is highly sustainable.
Chief Spokesperson to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Festus Keyamo, has however stated that he was positive that the Bola Tinubu presidency would terminate subsidy payments to align with the plan of the Buhari administration.
He further warned that government was continuum and as such, Bola Tinubu should be left alone to make a decision on when exactly he chooses to execute it.
According to him, the federal government chose June 2023 to officially end fuel subsidies. However, the budget did not capture it beyond that date.
His words: ‘It is one of the policies by which we campaigned. I cannot sit here and tell you when exactly it will be done. But the removal of subsidies is something that the president-elect pledged to do. Not only him. Virtually all the leading presidential candidates took the same position.’
‘Why the FG targeted June (to end subsidy) was that the budget only provided for subsidy up to June. That was the reason. But the new government will decide when it wants to. Of course, you know that when a new government takes over, the country is at its beck and call. Yes, I agree that government is a continuum. But all policies are not a continuum.’
He also gave the assurance that Bola Tinubu would look into the best way to cushion the impact of of the fuel subsidy removal.
Hear him: ‘I can assure you that the president-elect being who he is will not do that without corresponding palliative (measures) to the masses. I can tell you that confidently.’
He further tasked the NLC to avoid inciting the masses against the decision, as Peter Obi of the Labour Party also endorsed the subsidy removal during the build-up of the presidential election.
