Flashback: How Buhari Rejected Subsidy Removal Under Former President Jonathan in 2011

• Recently, the federal government disclosed that they will end subsidy on petroleum products in 2022
• This announcement so far has generated heated reactions from the people in the polity as governors are said to be in support of FG's decision
• Meanwhile, ten years ago, President Muhammadu Buhari criticized ex-president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan over an attempt to remove fuel subsidy

The federal government has fixed a June deadline for the final removal of the petrol subsidy.

Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance, budget and national planning, made this known on Tuesday, November 23, while speaking at the launch of the World Bank Nigeria Development Update (NDU).

During the programme, the minister also laid out the plans for subsidy removal.

But 10 years ago, Buhari had criticised former President Goodluck Jonathan over the attempt to remove subsidy, describing the move as unpopular, Daily Trust reported.

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In a statement, the late Yinka Odumakin, who was his spokesman, issued on his behalf, Buhari had said the sharp practices that characterise the importation of petroleum products suggest that the deplorable state of Nigeria’s refineries is deliberate sabotage.

During his speech at the 17th Nigerian Economic Summit (NSE) in Abuja, President Goodluck Jonathan had said Buhari was favourably disposed to the planned removal of subsidy.

The former president was reported to have said:

“I can now appreciate people like Buhari, who in terms of politics was my major competitor, he is the only one person who has come up clearly that the issue of subsidizing petroleum products is a fraud. He is not playing politics with the development and future of Nigeria.”

But Buhari denied taking such a stand, insisting that most of the elements that go into “what is called subsidy” is the cost of corruption in the opaque business of oil importation.

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He said as a man who has stood against corruption in both private and public spheres, he could not lend his support to a “measure that aids corruption and further impoverishes the people as all the federal government wants to do is to yank up pump prices.”

4 things that will happen if petrol price becomes N340 per litre, Shehu Sani reveals

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had earlier reported that Senator Shehu Sani, former federal lawmaker from Kaduna state, has spoken on what Nigerians will experience if the price of petrol becomes N340 per litre.

Sani's comment follows a statement by the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) that the price of petrol may range between N320 and N340 per litre after the removal of subsidy in 2022.

Taking to his Facebook page, the former senator listed what will happen if the product is being sold at such a high price.

Source: Legit.ng