Petrol subsidy would have to go to get Nigeria’s economy on a sound footing, President Muhammadu Buhari’s Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said yesterday.
Adesina, who spoke yesterday on Politics Today, a Channel Television programme, said the time to discontinue with the payment of subsidy on petrol was now.
The Federal Government has voted N3.36 trillion in this year’s Appropriation Act to offset subsidy bills till the middle of the year.
Noting that the Buhari’s presidency had always described subsidy as a fraud, Adesina said the administration could not stop it because of the social and economic implications.
According to him, the payment of subsidy was a phase in the country needed to go through, but insisted that that has to end.
He said: “You have heard the Minister of Finance saying that subsidy payment will stop by June. That date was not picked haphazardly.
“It had been planned when the PIA kicked off, there was an 18-months window for the removal of subsidy payment and that is June this year.
“It is a way Nigeria must go. I have not seen any major contender in the race to the presidency that has said he will retain subsidy payment. It is a way Nigeria must go.
“I told you it was based on both economic and social sense. You know that each time there is an attempt to fight the fraud in the subsidy regime, you have to contend with Labour, the people and that is the social sense of it. My principal has always maintained that subsidy payment is fraudulent.
“Removing fuel subsidy makes a lot of economic sense. It doesn’t make all the social sense.
“And you know that President is somebody that tries to make social sense in whatever he wants to do. But the time has now come for it to go.”
Adesina said the country was bleeding and therefore, to stop the hemorrhage, it has to be stopped.
“Over the years, it became evident that the country was bleeding, the economy bleeding and there was a lot of hemorrhage which needed to be stopped. And that time is now.”
On security, he said: “The thing is that where were we in 2015 when this government assumed office and where are we today?
“In 2015, you and I were running helter-skelter. This was because insecurity, particularly, insurgency was at the very door of every state and every city. Is that the same today? No, it has been beaten
back a lot. ‘
“There is huge difference between where we were in 2015 and where we are today. Ask people in hotbed areas about insecurity, particularly, in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, they’ll tell you that there is a huge difference between 2015 and now.
On economy, the Special Adviser said: “For going to 60 years, Nigeria had paid lip service to diversifying the economy. But as we speak, Nigeria’s economy is diversified.”