Why FG Must Remove Fuel Subsidy Immediately, Governor El-Rufai Gives Reasons
- Governor Nasir El-Rufai has urged the federal government to immediately remove the subsidy on petrol
- El -Rufai disclosed that governors of the 36 states and federal government officials had agreed to the removal of petrol subsidy in September 2021
- He added that the transparency of the administration of the subsidy should have forced the federal government to end the regime
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A strong message has been sent to the federal government. The message was sent by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state.
The governor called for the immediate removal of petrol subsidy, Vanguard Newspaper reports.
He made the call, yesterday, at the “State-of-the-State” session at the on-going NESG, in Abuja.
When the governor who was on panel during session was asked what should be the priority of the government, he said, “remove fuel subsidy immediately.”
Source: Facebook
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Going further, he disclosed that governors of the 36 states and federal government officials, at the National Economic Council, had agreed to the removal of petrol subsidy in September 2021.
He expressed surprise that President Muhammadu Buhari failed to implement the decision.
He said:
“I think if NEC decisions were faithfully implemented by the national government, some of the current economic issues will not arise – because NGF provided technical support to study this subsidy issue when it started looming and at N800 billion.”
“We projected that if left unchecked, it would lead to trillions of leakage. As pointed out earlier, we are not even sure if these figures are real or just manufactured on paper to take out money.
‘We envisaged at that point that a time would come when the NNPC would come to FAAC and say guys, we need cheque from you to cover for subsidy- not to contribute but to say we are spending more than we are receiving from crude oil. That time has come.
“We took a decision to remove subsidy in September 2021. The Minister of Finance also agreed. We agreed that the money from there should be channelled into health, education and infrastructure.
“Even this ASUU problem, we agreed to provide funding for ASUU. The NEC took that decision but the national government failed to implement that decision. Till today, we do not know why this decision taken in 2021 has not been implemented.”
Again Buhari speaks on subsidy removal as he makes last budget presentation
Meanwhile, on Friday, October 7, President Muhammadu Buhari presented an N20.51 trillion budget for 2023 to the National Assembly.
The president while making his presentation advocated for the removal of subsidy on the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as fuel. The president said the present regime of subsidy is not sustainable, especially considering the current economic realities on the ground.
He further stated that as a country, Nigeria needs to tackle issues by taking into consideration the need to provide social amenities for the people.
MRS Fingers NNPC, Duke Oil over bad fuel in circulation
Meanwhile in an earlier report, Legit.ng revealed that the management of MRS Oil Nigeria Plc has cleared the air on how the Nigeria Petroleum Corporation brought bad fuel into the country which is causing scarcity and an increase in the cost of transportation.
MRS also dissociated itself from reports making the rounds on social media that it is responsible for the contaminated product in Nigeria and that the company is a responsible corporate citizen who will not go out of its way to harm other citizens.
According to MRS, the NNPC is the sole importer of PMS into Nigeria and the NNPC, through their trading arm, Duke Oil, supplied a cargo of PMS bought from an International trader. Litsaco and delivered it with Motor Tanker (MT) Nord Gainer.
Source: Legit.ng
