Lawmaker hails Tinubu for having political will to remove subsidy
Rep. Nkem Agbonta (PDP-Abia) has lauded President Bola Tinubu for having the political will to remove petroleum subsidy regime.
Agbonta gave the commendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday against the backdrop of the subsidy removal by Tinubu on May 29.
He said that the removal of the subsidy though is a neccessary evil, was the right step in the right direction.
“So I thank the president for having the political will for doing the needful by removing fuel subsidy.
”Tinubu is wearing the shoes and he knows where it pinches. I want to congratulate him for having that political will which was what we lack earlier to do the needful. “
He urged the president to also have the political will to touch other areas that would cushion the effect of the subsidy removal as a way of palliative.
Speaking on the implication of the announcement for the subsidy removal at his Inauguration, the lawmaker said, “Tinubu is now the president and he must hit the ground running.
”The removal will be painful but with time we will heal.
He said the failed attempt to remove subsidy during President Goodluck Jonathan was sequel to several consultations, which did not augur well.
He urged the NNPC Ltd to be transparent in its dealing.
”If the the NNPC remains the only one importing fuel, it will be wrong for it to also determine the price.
“If they bring in products they should have an agency to ensure all the price meets a particular standard and people should bring it the way they want and sell it the way they want.
“It is not proper to create a monopoly. We should copy the model of other countries in the Arab world and others.
”If we are unbundling regulations, giving different market for regulation, then people should be able to bring in their products,” he said.
He urged government to take urgent measure to make sure Nigerians are not faced with scarcity of products because NNPC could create scarcity by not releasing the products.
He said this would make the price to go up to N1,000 because scarcity would determine the demand and supply in relation to their respective prices.
Supreme reports that on Monday, Tinubu said: ”subsidy is gone”.
Tinubu exclaimed during his inaugural address at Eagle Square, Abuja, shortly after he was sworn in as the 16th President of Nigeria that there was no provision for subsidy in the national budget from June 2023 and, therefore, it stands removed.
Supreme reports that on Aug. 19 2022, the former Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, had announced that former President Muhammadu Buhari has set June 2023 as the date for the removal of fuel subsidy.
Ahmed had appeared before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the fuel subsidy regime from 2013 to 2022.
She explained that if Buhari’s regime continues to service the subsidy, the country will spend N6.4 trillion annually.
“One thing that stands out in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework was that if the nation holds on to fuel subsidy as it is designed now, we will be incurring from January to December a subsidy cost of N6.4 trillion,” the minister had pointed out.
“But we suggested to the Federal Executive Council, and the council approved that, maybe, we could look at the option of exiting the subsidy (regime) half year. So, if we did that, then the cost would be N3.35 trillion, which is half of the N6.7 trillion.”
The FEC, she stated, approved the second option.
“That is the option that was conveyed by His Excellency, the President, to the National Assembly. But Let me also say that even though this is a reduced option, it would mean that we are borrowing more than we would have borrowed if we did not have fuel subsidies,” Ahmed further stated.
