My Subsidy Removal Plan Was Predicated On Certain Conditions – Peter Obi
The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, has that his believe in the scrapping of subsidy of fuel was predicated on meeting certain conditions that remain empirical to the people.
Obi pointedly said that it was clear that people were merely stealing the resources of the country adding that he had empirically showed in his statistical analysis that the Nigeria was not consuming the amount of fuel being claimed to be consumed.
Obi, who stated his position on the removal of fuel subsidy by the President Bola Tinubu-led administration while fielding questions from journalists at the premises of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, explained that his support for subsidy removal dated back to the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan when he served as a member of the Presidential Economic Management Team.
He said; “If you have followed me very well right from the time I was a member of Jonathan’s Economic Management Team, I consistently maintained that subsidy should be removed because I see it as an organised crime”.
He explained that his idea of subsidy removal was clearly different from the implementation policy adopted by President Tinubu which has brought about untold hardship on the people saying that it like going to a Dentist with a toothache and he is left with two options.
In the words of Obi; “if you approach a dentist to remove a painful tooth, he will apply a local anaesthesia to numb the area around the tooth so you do not feel pain. It is not the same thing as pulling the tooth forcefully, the pain you feel will be different.
“For me, I will go with the approach of the dentist while supporting the removal of the tooth because I would not want to go through the pain of forceful removal.
“Recall that even when Jonathan wanted to remove it, they came up with various relieving policies like Sure-P and others.
“If you read my manifesto, you will see clearly how I planned to remove subsidy. I will govern with the people and show them statistically and empirically what we are getting and how we are deploying it.
“The problem in Nigeria is that when people say, let’s go and suffer, let’s go and sacrifice, they don’t see the results of their suffering and their sacrifice,” he enthused.
