Buhari Says He Sees No Reason To Remove Fuel Subsidy Yet

President Muhammadu Buhari, Monday in Abuja said that his government may not remove subsidy
on petroleum subsidy, stressing that arguments in favour of the removal were not reasonable enough. More so, the removal will have adverse effect on the poor and jobless Nigerians.



Buhari said this after receiving a briefing from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other agencies in the oil sector on a review of existing  agreements for the swapping of crude oil for refined products with a view to injecting more honesty and transparency into the process to reduce costs. He promised to carefully review all the submissions he had received on the need to remove the subsidies.

“I have received many literature on the need to remove subsidies, but much of it has no depth.

“When you touch the price of petroleum products, that has the effect of triggering price rises on transportation, food and rents.  That is for those who earn salaries, but there are many who are jobless and will be affected by it,” he said.

According to Buhari, what impeded transparency in the oil sector may not be the subsidy but lack of security, sabotage, vandalism, corruption and mismanagement; issues he intends to deal with decisively.

“We have to go back to the good old days of transparency and accountability,” the President said .