Politics

Obi: I support fuel subsidy removal

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, says he supports the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol.

Obi said this while speaking with journalists in Abuja Tuesday on the sidelines of the ongoing hearing of petitions challenging the February 25, 2023, presidential election at the Presidential Election Petition Court.

The former governor of Anambra State, however, said though he had consistently maintained that subsidy was an organised crime, its removal must be done in such a way that it won’t throw the people into untold hardship.

He said: “Throughout my campaigns, go and check my manifesto, I had maintained this about its removal.

“If you have a toothache and you go to a dentist, there is a difference between removing your tooth by applying anaesthesia, which will ameliorate your pains, than by just pulling it out.

“The difference is that I believe it should be removed with conditions, and those conditions have to be applied.”

Obi stated that if he had been elected president, he would have also removed subsidy but would have introduced a new open and transparent system that would carry people along.

The LP presidential candidate added: “If I was involved, I had to show empirical, statistical data how much we are going to save, where we are going to apply it and the gains for the people.

“I said throughout my campaign, that I am going to govern the people by being open, showing them empirical, verifiable facts on how the country can be better, that is what I would have done.

“There are things you need to do. When former President Goodluck Jonathan was about to remove it that was when they came up with SURE-P as part of the conditions.

“The reason Nigerians are agitating is that when people say let’s go and suffer, let’s go and sacrifice, they don’t see the effects of the sacrifice; and we need to do this in an organised manner where people can see in a verifiable plan.

“Governance shouldn’t be supply driven, it should be demand-driven. You govern with the people, let the people know what you are doing and explain it to them in clear terms and they will believe you.”

Obi said he had shown consistently during the tenure of Jonathan’s economic management team that using empirical data, petrol consumed by Nigeria was more than what it was supposed to be when compared to other countries like Pakistan.

The issue of subsidy removal by the government has been on the front burner in the county for years.

It formed part of the campaign manifesto of several presidential candidates during the 2023 general election, including Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

President Bola Tinubu, however, announced the removal of subsidy on petrol on May 29 when he took his oath of office as Nigeria’s President, saying there was no allocation for it in the 2023 budget beyond June.

Shortly afterwards, the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited announced the adjustment of pump price where NNPCL filling stations were selling fuel at N537 while others were selling from N540 and above.

The Star