• FG claims it spent N10.413tr on subsidy, N1. 7tr on power• Power outages disrupt briefing on petrol, electricity price hike
According to him, other negative consequences will be the return of fuel queues, and diverting funds for health, education, and other social services to fund subsidy. “The recent service-based tariff adjustment by the DisCos has been a source of concern to many of us. Let me say frankly that like many Nigerians, I have been very unhappy about the quality of service given by the Discos. That is why we have directed that tariff adjustments be made only on the basis of guaranteed improvement in service,” he said.
But reacting to the statement yesterday, the Peoples Democratic Party warned the Buhari Presidency against pushing Nigerians to the wall through “the display of insensitivity and total disregard to the demands by the citizens to effect an immediate downward review in the pump price of fuel.” The party said it rejects “this attempt to hinge the increase in fuel price on presumed removal of oil subsidy when the government failed to account for the proceeds of oil sales in the last five years.
An expert with the Facility for Oil Sector Transparency , Michael Faniran, said there was no alternative to deregulation at this time, stressing that subsidy was one of the causes of the country’s economic woes. While a Professor of Economics at Babcock University, Segun Ajibola, noted that with over N4.7trillion deficit in the 2020 fiscal budget and severe stress on revenue, including oil revenue, the current government has no alternative than to remove the subsidy; the programme coordinator for Nigeria Natural Resource Charter , Tengi George-Ikoli, noted that the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the glaring shortcomings within Nigeria’s petroleum sector, especially the waste of funds on subsidy.
He said the long-drawn fuel subsidy regime ended in March 2020, when the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency announced it had begun fuel price modulation, in accordance with prevailing market dynamics, and would respond appropriately to any further oil market development.