The Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, NACCIMA, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and stakeholders in the oil and gas sector yesterday railed against the N3 trillion proposal of the Federal Government to cover the 18-month period that fuel subsidy would remain.
It will be recalled that the Federal Executive Council, FEC, at its weekly meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, received a proposal to spend N3trillion for the period.
The governors, labout and private sector players contended that the money is too much to be spent on subsidy in a tottering economy.
Head, Media and Public Affairs of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, Mr Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, said since they do not have the power to stop the Federal Government from taking this action, a committee will be set up by the NGF and Labour to investigate the subsidy regime and proposed N3trn subsidy for 2022.
Bello-Barkindo said: “The governors and the NLC have met and they have decided to set up a committee that will look at the proposed N3trn for subsidy and look at how the subsidy regime can be tackled, instead of throwing away N3trn.
“N3trn is a lot of money. The committee will look at the volume of fuel that is refined and the total number of litres imported for local consumption. These are questions that need answers.
“The committee will come up with findings on subsidy because the Federal Government cannot continue to throw figures at us, we need to investigate this subsidy regime because a lot of money goes into it.”
We can’t accept figure without empirical data – NLC
On its part, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, whose reaction came through its president, Ayuba Wabba, said: “Nigerians should not accept the figure hook, line and sinker. The proposed N3trillion should be interrogated because there is no empirical data to back up the claim.
“There must be transparency, accountability in the process, including the quantity of product being subsidized. We should be able to know and determine the quantity of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, Nigerians are consuming per day.
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