President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has described fuel subsidy as a “scam” and disincentive to growth, saying it rewarded smugglers and reduced the burden of the “real cost” of the commodity for some countries.
The President stated this during a meeting with members of the Nigerian community in France, according to a statement on Friday by his Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, Mr. Dele Alake.
This was as the Nigerian leader explained that his inaugural speech as President of Nigeria on May 29 where he had declared that “fuel subsidy is gone” excluded fuel subsidy but he had to stop it on day one.
Addressing the Nigerian community, Tinubu said his Special Adviser on Monetary Policy, Wale Edun and Alake had excluded fuel subsidy removal from his inaugural speech, “but he felt it was expedient to stop the subsidy on the first day”.
“They thought it was the joke of the century until I called NNPC. We are tired of feeding smugglers, making a few people rich, and subsidising the next-door neighbour.
“I met with the president of the Benin Republic today. Everybody is equal now, we are friends. We are conjoined twins joined by the hips, how we will separate each other is with this fuel subsidy.
“Let us see whether we will survive or not but we are going to survive you.”
The May 29 comment on fuel subsidy by Tinubu led to the return of queues at petrol stations and hike in price and hoarding. The President would later explain that the 2023 budget made no provisions for fuel subsidy from July 1 but ends in June.
However, speaking in France on Friday, President Tinubu explained that his administration was working to make provisions that would cushion the effect of the removal of the subsidy on petrol.
“You want money to increase palliative, transportation. What are you protesting about? Are you sharing part of the subsidy? If you protest, I will join you and protest against it. And they stopped. No protest,” he said.
“Palliative we will get but we have to save the money in order to embark on a palliative [measures],” the President was quoted as saying.
