Why FG Must Remove Subsidy Immediately – El-Rufai

Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State, has demanded the immediate elimination of the gasoline subsidy.

He made the announcement during the “State-of-the-State” session of the currently taking place NESG in Abuja.

When asked what the government should prioritize, the governor who was sitting on a panel during the discussion responded, “Remove gasoline subsidies immediately.”

El-Rufai revealed that at the National Economic Council, the governors of the 36 states and representatives of the federal government had agreed to end the subsidy on gasoline in September 2021.

He expressed amazement that President Muhammadu Buhari had not carried out the decision, despite the corruption it had engendered and the tremendous fiscal strain the subsidy had placed on the government’s resources.

El-Rufai claims that the subsidy’s administration’s transparency, which ought to have compelled the federal government to overthrow the dictatorship earlier, is still in question.

The governor added that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) would eventually claim that all of the country’s monthly oil earnings had been used for subsidies if the subsidy was not removed.

According to him, “The framers of our constitution envisaged that for the economy to work well, there should be a level of coordination between the federal and state governments.

“That was why the National Economic Council was created, with the Vice President as Chairman. All 36 governors are members and some federal government officials like the Minister of Finance.

“Under this administration, we have met religiously, almost every month, because we have only one economy.

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“I think if NEC decisions were faithfully implemented by the national government, some of the current economic issues will not arise – because NGF provided technical support to study this subsidy issue when it started looming and at N800 billion.

“We projected that if left unchecked, it would lead to trillions of leakage.  As pointed out earlier, we are not even sure if these figures are real or just manufactured on paper to take out money.

“We envisaged at that point that a time would come when the NNPC would come to FAAC and say guys, we need cheque from you to cover for subsidy- not to contribute but to say we are spending more than we are receiving from crude oil. That time has come.

“We took a decision to remove subsidy in September 2021. The Minister of Finance also agreed. We  agreed that the money from there should be channelled into health, education and infrastructure.

“Even this ASUU problem, we agreed to provide funding for ASUU. The NEC took that decision but the national government failed to implement that decision.  Till today, we do not know why this decision taken in 2021 has not been implemented.

”The governor of Kaduna State received the feedback with gratitude, and commended the fighter crews for their precision and consistency in the aerial missions. Ground and air patrols will continue in these and other locations.”