Obasanjo: Tinubu removed fuel subsidy without plans

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has condemned the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu.

The Star recalls that Tinubu, on inauguration day, May 29, 2023, announced the removal of subsidy on petroleum products.

“Subsidy is gone,” Tinubu declared during his inaugural address at Eagle Square in Abuja, shortly after he was sworn in as the 16th President of Nigeria.

Speaking in a national broadcast on the ongoing nationwide protest against economic hardship in the country on Sunday, August 4, 2024, the president described the removal of fuel subsidy as a painful decision by his administration.

He added that he took the decision to remove fuel subsidy and abolish multiple foreign exchange rates because they had impeded the economic development and progress of the nation.

However, Obasanjo, in a recent interview with Financial Times, said Tinubu failed to consider the hardship the subsidy removal could cause people.

The former president said: “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. Not just wake up one morning and say you removed the subsidy.

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“Because of inflation, the subsidy that we have removed is not gone. It has come back.”

He further disclosed that he persuaded Shell Plc to run Nigeria’s refineries but the international oil company rejected the offer and said there was too much corruption in the oil sector.

Obasanjo added: “When I was president, I invited Shell and I said, look, come and take equity participation and run our refineries for us. They refused. They said our refineries have not been well maintained.

“We have brought amateurs rather than bringing professionals. They said there’s too much corruption with the way our refinery is run and maintained. And they didn’t want to get involved in such a mess.”

On the government’s promises that Nigeria’s refineries will be fixed, Obasanjo said: “How many times have they told us that? And at what price?

“Those problems, as far as the government refineries are concerned, have never gone away. They have even increased. So if you have a problem like that and that problem is not removed then you aren’t going anywhere.”

The Star