A former member of the House of Representatives, Usman Bugaje, has criticized the incumbent government led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the untold hardship in Nigeria following the removal of fuel subsidy.
According to him, Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy without implementing measures to mitigate its effects.
Naija News recalls that during his inauguration on May 29, 2023, Tinubu declared an end to the era of fuel subsidy and also allowed the naira, the country’s currency, to float freely.
This decision resulted in a significant increase in the cost of living and a threefold rise in the price of fuel.
Bugaje argues that Tinubu’s government did not adequately prepare before implementing this policy.
“We had expected that when the new government took over, we were expecting that he would surround himself with expertise.
“We were expecting that for him to have announced the removal of the fuel subsidy, he must have had a plan – something that would address the consequences of that.
“You don’t make a policy without looking at the consequences and preparing to cushion the effect of that. But apparently, he did that without preparation,” Bugaje said during a live interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
Tinubu Has Re-introduced Petrol Subsidy Through Back Door – Phrank Shaibu
Meanwhile, Phrank Shaibu, Special Assistant on Public Communication to the former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, has asserted that the administration of President Bola Tinubu has re-introduced petrol subsidy through the back door.
Naija News reported that Tinubu was said to have silently re-introduced the payment of fuel subsidies in Nigeria in order to keep the price of petrol stable.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) made the allegation in a statement last week and urged Tinubu’s government to stop the payment of subsidies on petrol completely to free up funds to run the government.
Reacting to reports by the IMF, Shaibu, in a statement on Monday, accused Tinubu of lying over some of the policies he had boasted to have made in his administration.
He maintained it had become clear that one of the reasons why the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited had not been paying the required amount of money into the government’s account was due to monies being diverted under an opaque and secret subsidy regime.
He said, “Tinubu has been boasting at every economic forum that he deserves to be in the Guinness Book of Records for removing petrol subsidy. He even said before ringing the closing bell at NASDAQ in New York last September that the ‘corrupt subsidy’ regime and FX issues had been resolved.
“But as with every other thing relating to Tinubu, this has turned out to be another lie from the pit of hell. Currently, the exchange rate based on what the Central Bank of Nigeria recommended to the Nigeria Customs Service is N1515/$1. Hence diesel price is now over N1,200 but petrol is still selling for between N600 and N700.
“Nigeria is the only country in the world where such disparity between diesel and petrol exists. It has become obvious that the petrol subsidy has returned through the backdoor.
“With the return of petrol subsidy, oil marketers have opted out and that is why the NNPC has returned to being the sole importer of petrol once more and has the temerity to be announcing that it will not increase petrol cost regardless of the international price of crude oil and the exchange rate.”
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