Fuel subsidy removal cruel to the masses – NIM

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke

The President and Chairman of Council, Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered), Dr. Nelson Uwaga, said on Wednesday that removing fuel subsidy at the moment would be cruel to the masses.

Uwaga, however, said during a courtesy visit to the head office of PUNCH Nigeria Limited in Ogun State that the enormous corruption around the subsidy regime would make it unsustainable on the long run.

“People are abusing the whole thing; so, I think the government should put its house in order. It should not totally remove the subsidy but work towards stabilising the local production of petroleum products,” he said.

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, on Tuesday gave a hint of the plan by the Federal Government to remove subsidies on petrol and kerosene at the ongoing Nigerian Oil and Gas Conference in Abuja.

She said the subsidies being paid to the marketers by the Federal Government on both products were no longer sustainable.

The NIM president pointed out that the revenue sharing formula had to change with the federating units given priority.

Uwaga said the Federal Government should focus on security, among other things, while the states and the local governments should take on more responsibilities.

“In all honesty, the sharing formula has to change and tilt towards the state and local governments, while we should leave the centre to focus on security so that we can live together as one,” he said

Speaking on the clamour for state police, Uwaga said, “State police is a good idea but we have to be careful. We have a situation where most state executives have become small gods in their states.”

“In such a situation, we may have governors using the police against their opponents in election time, for instance.”