According to Isa Yuguda, a former governor of Bauchi State, the federal government continues to subsidize petroleum goods.
President Bola Tinubu famously said, “The fuel subsidy is gone,” in his inaugural speech last year. He went on to say that the 2023 budget did not include a fuel subsidy and, moreover, that the payment of subsidies was no longer justified.
In a study released last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommended Nigeria to fully phase out expensive fuel and energy subsidies as one of the steps it would take to address its economic problems.
Because of the elimination, the price of gasoline has risen from less than N200 per litre to over N700 per litre in major cities. Millions of people’ financial circumstances have been worse as a result of this, which has also caused a sharp increase in the price of products and services.
”If the IMF says we are paying subsidy then we are,” Yuguda said on Monday.
”But the subsidy that was removed was the one that was going into private pockets and I decoupled that subsidy that ordinarily shouldn’t have been paid.”
”If it should have been paid it should be paid into the treasury of the country and today that revenue increase that we see is reflected in the removal of the monies that were going into the pockets of private individuals is what is going into the treasury of the country.”
”You have that subsidy being paid on petrol products that are pumped through pipelines and in many instances they are pumped through imaginary pipelines, where the pipelines don’t exist, sow e all pay subsidy but that what was the President removed, that is why most states are getting twice or thrice of their allocation.”
Speaking about the nation’s economic suffering, the former governor claimed that the typical Nigerian would not comprehend the difficulties the president must overcome to improve the state of the economy.
He suggested that the president’s cabinet members should assist in educating the public about how the country will change as a result of government initiatives.