If elected president, Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) will end petrol subsidies and channel the funds towards the transportation and education sectors, the party’s campaign has said.
“All our earnings are going into servicing of debt. If we are able to take a pragmatic step of going away from the subsidy, we will be able to have enough funds to take care of the capital project to pay the salaries and overhead,” Daniel Bwala, the campaign spokesperson told a local television station on Friday.
Bwala said petrol subsidy is contributing to 60 percent of debt to service ratio in Nigeria.
“We will be able to have enough money to invest in critical areas of infrastructure such as power, refineries and education if we remove subsidies,” he said.
More funding towards education will make it easier for Nigeria to compete with counterparts in Africa and outside the country, he said.
Months to the election next year, the political parties are dishing out pragmatic policy ideas but the challenge has been having the political will to implement them when they get into office.
Buhari claimed subsidy was a fraud in 2011 only to be elected and spent the most on subsidies than any other president.
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“Instead of subsidizing the rich and the middle class, we will look to subsidize in areas like transportation and education.
“If you encourage private participation, and you have a lot of private institutions, but you have money to subsidize education, it means the poor man can access money to go to universities that are considered as Ivy League in Nigeria or Ivy League abroad,” he said.
Furthermore, Bwala noted that the foreign exchange policy by the government is inconsistent, which is the reason why investors are scared of investing in the country.
Earlier today, President Muhammadu Buhari admitted during the presentation of the 2023 budget to the National Assembly that the current fiscal impact of fuel subsidy is not sustainable.
“As a country, we must now confront this issue taking cognisance of the need to provide safety nets to cushion the attendant effects on some segments of society,” he said. “Discontinuing the policy is necessary for the country to manage limited resources.”
According to Buhari, as the country seeks to grow its government revenue, it must also focus on the efficient use of limited resources.
Also note that earlier this year, the FG projected that the petrol subsidy will gulp N6.7 trillion in 2023 if bold steps are not taken to do away with it, even as the debt service outpaced its revenue in the first four months of this year.
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