Peter Obi, the Presidential candidate for the Labour Party stated that his administration will remove fuel subsidies and send the proceeds into social development areas including health and Education citing the FG subsidy payments are a “bloated scam”.
Obi revealed this on Sunday alongside his running mate Datti Baba-Ahmed at the Channels Television’s Townhall series on Sunday.
The Labour Party candidate also revealed that Pakistan, with similar population demographics as Nigeria consumes below 60% of what Nigeria claims to consume under fuel subsidy payments.
Organised Crime: Obi noted that the payments are bloated, citing that the quantity that is claimed consumed is not what it is.
- “ Subsidy is an organised crime, I cannot allow it to stay a day longer, what they are telling you is not what it is
- “Half of what is being mentioned is not a subsidy, first is that we consume the quantity that is not supposed to be consumed here”.”
- “We are the same population as Pakistan, they consume below 60% of what we consume.”
Life after subsidy: He added that the money saved from removing the subsidy would be used to invest in critical areas of human development.
- “First we remove it, secondly, we will deal with the other remaining issue, we need the money to be able to invest in critical social development issues.
- “Look at this year’s budget, education, which is at its highest level under this administration is about N2 trillion, health is aboutN1.5 trillion, then infrastructure is N1 trillion, these 3 critical development areas are about N4.5 trillion, meanwhile subsidy costs for half year is N3.6 trillion
- “Which country will invest more in subsidy than education and health? it does not make sense..it will go immediately.”
Subsidy in the 2023 Budget: Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, revealed that only N3.36 trillion was earmarked for fuel subsidy in Nigeria’s 2023 budget.
The minister said fuel subsidy payments will remain up to mid-2023, based on the 18-month extension announced in early 2022. This means fuel subsidy payments will be stopped in June 2023, after a new administration has been inaugurated following the outcome of the general elections in February-March 2023.