By Dipo Olowookere
Candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25, 2023, presidential election, Mr Peter Obi, has promised to yank off fuel subsidy from his first day in office if he wins the exercise.
Mr Obi made this disclosure at the Town Hall meeting organised by Channels Television on Sunday, monitored by Business Post.
The former Governor of Anambra State was at the event with his running mate, Mr Yusuf Datti-Ahmed, who broke down in tears while condemning attacks on his family by the opposition.
Mr Obi, who described the petrol subsidy as an organised crime, stressed that he would not waste any time removing the subsidy because it is useless.
“It is only in Nigeria the government pays like N6 trillion to N7 trillion for fuel subsidy and budgets about N4.5 trillion to education, health and capital projects; this is crazy,” the Labour Party flagbearer said.
“From my first day in office, I will remove subsidy,” he added, noting that the volume of petrol the government says the country currently consumes is inflated.
This is not the first time Mr Obi has promised to remove the petrol subsidies if elected as the next President of Nigeria.
While addressing the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) at a private sector economic forum last year, he said the funds saved from the removal of subsidy would be invested in critical sectors of the economy.
“Subsidy is an organised crime; 50 per cent of it is corruption. So, it must be removed, after which we will focus on supporting the private sector’s participation in local refining and invest the subsidy funds in more critical sectors like health and education,” he said.
At the Channels TV event today, he said his administration would invite illegal crude oil refiners to a table and work around ways to legalise their operations.
“Can you imagine that those who built modular refineries do not have crude oil to work with?” he said at the engagement.
Adedapo Adesanya