The immediate elimination of the gasoline subsidy has been demanded by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State.
At the “State-of-the-State” meeting of the ongoing NESG in Abuja, he made the announcement yesterday.
When asked what the government’s top priority should be while in session, the governor said, “Remove gasoline subsidies quickly.”
At the National Economic Council, the governors of the 36 states and representatives of the federal government approved the withdrawal of the gasoline subsidy for September 2021, according to El-Rufai.
He expressed amazement that President Muhammadu Buhari had not carried out the decision, despite the corruption it had engendered and the tremendous fiscal strain the subsidy had placed on the government’s resources.
He claims that the subsidy’s administration’s openness, which ought to have compelled the federal government to overthrow the dictatorship earlier, is still in question.
The governor said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) would eventually claim that all of the country’s monthly oil profits had been used for subsidies if the subsidy was not removed.
“The authors of our constitution anticipated that there should be some amount of cooperation between the federal and state governments for the economy to function successfully,” he added.
“For this reason, the Vice President was appointed as Chairman of the National Economic Council.
Representatives include all 36 governors as well as some members of the federal government, such as the minister of finance.
“We anticipated at the time that the NNPC would eventually approach FAAC and ask for a check to pay subsidies—not because we needed the money, but because we were using more subsidy money than we were getting from crude oil.
The moment has arrived.
“We decided to stop providing subsidies in September 2021.
The Finance Minister concurred as well.
We all agreed that the funds from there should go toward infrastructure, education, and health.
“Despite this ASUU issue, we decided to finance ASUU.
Although the NEC made that decision, the national government did not carry it through.
We still don’t understand why this decision from 2021 wasn’t carried through.
“The governor of Kaduna State gratefully accepted the comments and praised the fighter personnel for their accuracy and reliability during the aerial operations. In these and other places, patrols from the air and on the ground will continue.
Vanguard
