Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, said Nigerians are suffering from President Bola Tinubu’s hasty announcement that fuel subsidy is gone without any proper planning on how to manage the after-affect of the removal.
Tinubu, during his inaugural speech at the Eagle Square in Abuja, announced that ‘fuel subsidy is gone!’. He further said the era of subsidy payment on fuel has ended, adding that the 2023 Budget made no provision for fuel subsidy and more so, subsidy payment is no longer justifiable.
Obi, who was a guest on the Arise Television programme ‘The Morning Show’ which was monitored by QUEST TIMES insisted that fuel subsidy is an organised crime which had to go.
He however said if elected president, his party would have laid out careful, well-thought plans on how to manage the removal, unlike the haphazard manner the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) went about it, a situation that has plunged Nigerians into deep poverty.
“My approach is to remove the corruption and criminal side of fuel subsidy; remove the essence demand that is not factual. By doing this, you would have reduced it by 50 percent”.
“The remaining 50 per cent is what we would have been able to after consultation with various stakeholders been able to find a way in an organised manner, remove and show the proceeds of the removal and gains of the removal, invest in critical development areas like education, health and pulling people out of poverty”.
“When you do it in an organised manner with proper palliatives that are well structured and thought after, not done haphazardly, you would have been able to see Nigerians go along with you”.
“One of the things we are suffering with this announcement is what I can call ‘announcement efect’.
“Policies like this are not what you just announce haphazardly. They are things that you talked through. That is some of things we would have done as Labour Party”.