Femi Adesina, special adviser, media and publicity to the president has said Muhammadu Buhari’s administration will not remove the controversial petrol subsidy.
Adesina during an interview on Arise News on Tuesday said Buhari has been reluctant to do a wholesome removal of petrol subsidy since 2015.
“That subsidy will not be removed in the life of this administration. As at last week after the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, this administration wanted to give the incoming administration opportunity to further consult on the matter,” he said.
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“Buhari said when Nigeria was earning over a hundred dollars from petroleum, what did the ordinary Nigerian benefit. So, why must he be the one to bear the brunt at the time when oil prices have collapsed and they are challenges. That is why Buhari had been very reluctant to remove petrol subsidy.”
The special adviser added that all the major candidates of the different parties during the campaign promised that they will remove fuel subsidy.
“They all said fuel subsidy was no longer realistic. IMF, World Bank and other multinational organisations have told Nigeria that petrol subsidy is no longer realistic,” he said.
Adesina added that Buhari had been convinced over the years, rather reluctantly. His position at the beginning was that they was nothing called subsidy. He said it was a fraud and a number of Nigerians joined him at that.
“But later he became convinced, seeing what the government was paying out monthly, it had to stop and be deployed to other productive areas of the economy. Nigeria cannot continue to pay what it has been paying on subsidy,” Adesina said.
