el-Rufai advises the FG, remove subsidy immediately.

Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports

Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State, has demanded that the petrol subsidy be removed immediately.

He made the announcement yesterday during the “State-of-the-State” session of the ongoing NESG in Abuja.

When asked what the government’s priority should be during the session, the governor, who was on the panel, said, “remove fuel subsidies immediately.”

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

He expressed surprise that President Muhammadu Buhari had failed to implement the decision, despite the enormous fiscal strain the subsidy had placed on government finances and the corruption it had engendered.

According to him, the transparency of the subsidy administration, which should have forced the federal government to end the regime by now, is still in doubt.

The governor also stated that the National Economic Council, NEC, anticipated that if the subsidy was not removed, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, would claim that the nation’s entire monthly oil earnings had been spent on subsidy.

“The framers of our constitution envisioned a level of coordination between the federal and state governments for the economy to work well,” he said.

“That is why the Vice President was appointed Chairman of the National Economic Council.” Members include all 36 governors as well as some federal government officials such as the Minister of Finance.

“Because we only have one economy, we have met almost every month under this administration.”

“I believe that if NEC decisions were faithfully implemented by the national government, some of the current economic issues would not have arisen – because NGF provided technical support to study this subsidy issue when it first became apparent, and at a cost of N800 billion.”

“We predicted that if left unchecked, it would result in trillions of dollars in leakage.” As previously stated, we are unsure whether these figures are real or fabricated on paper to extract money.

‘At the time, we anticipated that the NNPC would come to FAAC and say, guys, we need a check 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 arrived.

“We decided to discontinue the subsidy in September 2021.” The Minister of Finance agreed as well. We agreed that the money should go towards health, education, and infrastructure.

“Even with the ASUU issue, we agreed to fund ASUU.” The NEC made that decision, but the national government did not follow through on it. We still don’t know why this decision from 2021 was not implemented.”

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