The spokesperson for the African Democratic Congress presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, Kenneth Okonkwo, has said Nigeria does not need fuel subsidy, but faulted the timing and manner in which President Bola Tinubu’s administration removed the policy.
Okonkwo made the position while appearing on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, arguing that the government should have addressed key challenges in the petroleum sector before ending the subsidy regime.
He said the removal had worsened the economic hardship facing Nigerians, particularly at a time when millions of citizens were struggling to afford basic food and other necessities.
According to him, the current minimum wage is inadequate when compared with the cost of petrol, noting that workers who own vehicles would spend a substantial portion of their monthly earnings on fuel alone.
Okonkwo said, “There ought not to be subsidy in the first place in Nigeria because oil is our product. This is what Atiku is saying.”
However, he maintained that the government acted prematurely by removing the subsidy without first ensuring adequate fuel supply and preventing monopolistic control of the downstream petroleum market.
He said, “I said we were reckless in going into oil subsidy, and we ought not to be reckless coming out of it.”
The ADC chieftain also rejected claims that inflation was easing, arguing that Nigerians were still experiencing rising prices of food, transportation and other essential commodities.
He accused the administration of relying excessively on economic statistics while Nigerians continued to experience hardship.
“What Tinubu is doing is afflicting Nigerians with poverty, and they are using the Nigerian Statistics Bureau dubiously to polish it with statistics,” he alleged.
Okonkwo recalled that he had opposed the subsidy removal immediately after it was announced, warning at the time that the policy would become unsustainable unless certain conditions were met.
He said the government should have ensured sufficient petroleum product supply across the country and prevented a situation in which a single player or limited number of players could dominate the market.
The former presidential campaign spokesman maintained that while subsidy itself was undesirable, its removal should have been properly timed and supported by measures capable of cushioning the impact on Nigerians.
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