President Bola Tinubu needs to urgently respond to claims that the government of Nigeria has resumed fuel subsidy payments.
CHINOMSO MOMOH FROM DEVELOPMENT DIARIES
Development Diaries reports that the former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasiru El-Rufai, recently asserted that over eight trillion naira may have been spent by the Tinubu administration to subsidise the pump price of premium motor spirit (petrol).
El-Rufai, who said this while delivering a lead paper on the occasion of a capacity-building workshop in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, noted that in the course of implementing subsidy removal, the government realised that the subsidy had to be returned.
Recall that in March 2024, we reported that the Managing Director of Pinnacle Oil and Gas Limited, Robert Dickerman, claimed that Nigeria was paying about one trillion naira monthly for petrol subsidy.
Also, the World Bank disclosed in its Nigeria Development Update for December 2023 that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited was not transparent about the financial gains from fuel subsidy removal.
Could it be that the president has gone back on his ‘subsidy is gone’ statement?
It is more worrying because the president has yet to make any statements about these claims. His silence on this only represents a betrayal of public trust and a flagrant disregard for transparency and accountability.
The decision to remove fuel subsidy payments was made in the interest of economic reform, aimed at rationalising government spending and fostering fiscal responsibility.
However, if the administration is allegedly engaging in hidden subsidy payments, that means President Tinubu’s government is essentially deceiving citizens, who were led to believe that the subsidy removal would result in tangible benefits for them.
If government officials can conduct such transactions with impunity, it speaks volumes about the state of governance and the impunity with which corruption thrives within the corridors of power.
In light of these claims, Development Diaries calls on President Tinubu to immediately address all allegations of secret fuel subsidy payments for the sake of transparency in governance.
