Former Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda, has asserted that the federal government continues to subsidize petroleum products.
In his inaugural speech last year, President Bola Tinubu opening declared, “The fuel subsidy is gone.”
According to Tinubu, the 2023 Budget did not allocate funds for fuel subsidy, adding that subsidy payments were no longer justifiable.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in a recent report, also recommended that Nigeria completely phase out costly fuel and electricity subsidies as part of measures to address its economic challenges.
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Yuguda said on Monday during his interview on PolitcsToday:
“If the IMF says we are paying subsidy then we are.
”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.”
Discussing the economic challenges in the country, the Former Governor asserted that the average Nigerian might not fully comprehend the difficulties the president encounters while addressing the economic situation.
He urged the members of the president’s cabinet to actively engage in educating the public about how government policies will impact the nation.
He said:
”I will expect the cabinet of Mr Predisnet to go down the strata of our society and explain to the people that this is the situation that we have found ourselves in.
”If we hadn’t had our Central Bank messing us up and the economy that has been mismanaged in the past, it wouldn’t be the way it is today.”
