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 the governor who was on panel during session was asked what should be the priority of the government, he said, “remove fuel subsidy immediately.”
El -Rufai disclosed that governors of the 36 states and federal government officials, at the National Economic Council, had agreed to the removal of petrol subsidy in September 2021.
He expressed surprise that President Muhammadu Buhari failed to implement the decision, despite the immense fiscal pressure the subsidy had brought on government finances and the corruption associated with it.
According to him, the transparency of the administration of the subsidy, which should have forced the federal government to end the regime before now remains in doubt.
The governor also said the National Economic Council, NEC, envisaged that without removing the subsidy, a time would come when the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, would say the nation’s entire monthly oil earnings had been spent on subsidy.
He said: “The framers of our constitution envisaged that for the economy to work well, there should be a level of coordination between the federal and state governments.
“That was why the National Economic Council was created, with the Vice President as Chairman. All 36 governors are members and some federal government officials like the Minister of Finance.
“Under this administration, we have met religiously, almost every month, because we have only one economy.
“I think if NEC decisions were faithfully implemented by the national government, some of the current economic issues will not arise – because NGF provided technical support to study this subsidy issue when it started looming and at N800 billion.”
“We projected that if left unchecked, it would lead to trillions of leakage. As pointed out earlier, we are not even sure if these figures are real or just manufactured on paper to take out money.
‘We envisaged at that point that a time would come when the NNPC would come to FAAC and say guys, we need cheque 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 come.
“We took a decision to remove subsidy in September 2021. The Minister of Finance also agreed. We agreed that the money from there should be channelled into health, education and infrastructure.
“Even this ASUU problem, we agreed to provide funding for ASUU. The NEC took that decision but the national government failed to implement that decision. Till today, we do not know why this decision taken in 2021 has not been implemented.”
”The governor of Kaduna State received the feedback with gratitude, and commended the fighter crews for their precision and consistency in the aerial missions. Ground and air patrols will continue in these and other locations.”