Politics
El-Rufai, Soludo, Sanusi demand fuel subsidy removal
The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai and his Anambra counterpart, Prof. Charles Soludo, on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to end the fuel subsidy regime in the country.
They made the call during a panel session at the policy conversation on “How Nigeria Can Build a Post-Oil Economic Future,” held in Abuja.
The symposium was jointly hosted by Agora Policy, a Nigerian Think Tank and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
It also featured the presentation of a book titled: “Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The Politics of Building a Post-Oil Economy,” written by Dr. Zainab Usman, a senior fellow and Director of the Africa Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., the United States.
In his address, El-Rufai stressed the need for the federal government to end the fuel subsidy without delay.
He recalled that the National Economic Council (NEC) in 2021 asked a committee he headed to work out a framework on what to do with the resources if subsidy was removed including how much to be raised.
He listed the committee’s recommendation to include investments in security, social protection and infrastructure on health and education among others.
The governor said: “We worked with experts and World Bank and came out with a report on what to do with the resources which would be transparently explained to Nigerians.
“In 2021 the Federal Government ‘s budget for road was N200 billion and in 2021 we were projecting to spend N1.2 trillion on subsidy and we saw the danger and I called for its removal.
“We have a framework and the economic council agreed for it to be withdrawn because we had a clear plan on where the money should go which include federal, state and local government for interventions.
“Still it is on and currently we are looking at N6 trillion on subsidy but go and check the national budget on infrastructure on health and education, it is not up to that and does not make any sense, so we need to end the subsidy.”
READ ALSO: Nigeria suspends fuel subsidy removal
On his part, Soludo called for a transformational leadership and agenda, adding that the incoming administration had a chance for a fresh start.
“It has to start by getting the team assembled and getting to work immediately with institutional reforms and competitive system.
“It will be necessary if we begin to mainstream case studies and utilise lessons from those case studies that worked before by replicating them,” he stated.
The former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who was a special guest at the forum, urged the incoming government to appoint competent officials in suitable positions.
“We are going to have a government sworn on May 29 and I think we have to start stating what is expected of that government.
“What do we, as Nigerians, classify as a milestone that shows we are heading to the right direction?
“We also need a government that understands the depth of the crises that we are. We all have a responsibility of conveying the implications of the policies that we recommend.
“We need to go back to that situation where politicians respect the independence, integrity and autonomy of these institutions and where these institutions are held accountable by the law setting them up to perform duties,” he said.
The federal government had last month dismissed report on the suspension of the removal of fuel subsidy.
This followed reports in the media on the government’s suspension of the plan slated to begin in June.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, who made the clarification in a statement issued by her Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Yunusa Abdullahi, said the government has no plan to suspend the removal of the fuel subsidy.
She added the government instead of suspended the plan expanded the subsidy removal committee to include teams from the incoming administration and the state governors.
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