Tapre Timine
Kaduna Governor, Nasir El-Rufai and former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi have both expressed their disapproval of the retention of fuel subsidy in Nigeria.
During a policy conversation and book presentation in Abuja, El-Rufai, and Sanusi alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari frustrated plans to remove the subsidy.
El-Rufai claimed that Buhari had agreed that the spending on fuel subsidy made no sense, but refused to halt it.
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According to El-Rufai, a committee had been set up to develop a framework on what to do with the money that would be saved once the subsidy was halted.
The committee also outlined how to release more money for education, health, infrastructure, and other important sectors.
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Sanusi also described the retention of fuel subsidy as “stupid” and capable of bankrupting the country.
El Rufai said Governors saw danger ahead in 2021 with the retention of fuel subsidy.
Worried by the development, El Rufai claimed he approached Buhari and asked: “Does it make sense to you for us to spend N200billion on all federal roads in Nigeria in one year and six times that on cheap petrol?
“He (President) said it doesn’t make sense. So why are we doing it? This is something we’ve been studying for many years, we have a framework and the economic council agreed, all the 36 governors of Nigeria agreed that it should be withdrawn and we had a clear plan on where the money would go.
“Some of it will go to the Federal Government, some to states, Local Governments, and to interventions. We all agreed. The President said, no! That’s it.”
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Sanusi had called on the incoming government to stop the subsidy regime. According to him, in 2011 “we tried to explain that it’s bad economics; for every $1billion Nigeria spends on fuel subsidy, it is $1billion out of education, $1billion out of healthcare, $1billion out of power, $1billion out of infrastructure.
“What you are saying is that for the poor people in this nation, cheap fuel is more important than education, more important than healthcare, more important than power, etc. If you do that for 30, 40 years, what kind of country are you going to have? Which is what we have had.”
