The governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has urged the Federal Government to immediately remove the subsidy on petrol.
He made the call, yesterday, at the “State-of-the-State” session at the on-going NESG, in Abuja.
When asked during the session what should be the priority of the government, the governor said, “remove fuel subsidy immediately.”
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The governor said his colleagues across the federation had agreed that subsidy on petrol should be removed in September 2021.
El-Rufai said;
“Under this administration, we have met religiously, almost every month, because we have only one economy.
“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.”
El-Rufai’s comment is coming at a time the price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as fuel jumped to N190/per liter from N165/per litre in Abuja. In some States, the price has gone up to over N200.00.
This is despite the federal government spending over N2.04trn on subsidy.
Speaking further the governor said the National Economic Council, NEC, envisaged that without removing the subsidy, a time would come when the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, would say the nation’s entire monthly oil earnings had been spent on subsidy.
“The framers of our constitution envisaged that for the economy to work well, there should be a level of coordination between the federal and state governments.
“That was why the National Economic Council was created, with the Vice President as Chairman. All 36 governors are members and some federal government officials like the Minister of Finance.
“Under this administration, we have met religiously, almost every month, because we have only one economy.
“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.”
