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Petrol Subsidy Retained For Political Reasons – Experts

petrol pump

The federal government had a second thought on fuel subsidy removal to save the ruling APC from defeat in the 2023 general elections, experts in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry and university dons said on Tuesday.

Following a threat of industrial action by the organised labour, the government on Monday announced the suspension of the removal of fuel subsidy and yesterday said the intervention would continue for 18 months.

President Muhammadu Buhari has 16 months to the end of his second term; meaning the next administration would most likely inherit the debacle.

Some of the experts who spoke to our correspondents said the Buhari-led administration, like those before it, slept on duty because it failed to address the root causes of the subsidy guzzling billions of naira monthly and therefore could not articulate an enduring solution as they rounded off their stay in office.

They also said it was very unlikely for the government to achieve anything in the petroleum sector in the next 16 months.

Reacting, a renowned political scientist, Professor Kamilu Sani Fage, said looking at it contextually, it is difficult not to agree with the school of thought that the APC-led government rescinded its decision because of the fear of losing the 2023 elections.

“The fact that election is in the corner, perhaps that is why the government had to retrace its position because it knows very well that if it goes ahead with the subsidy removal, it will be counter-productive for them.

“Number two, you have to put it in the context of the crisis we are having across the nation, from Boko Haram to bandits to IPOB in the South. So, I think even that alone will make it unwise for the government to go ahead with the subsidy removal as the labour unions have said they will call for strikes and the like. So, that also could have made the government withdraw (the plan) because it would not want to add another conflict for itself,” he said.

Moving forward, Prof. Fage of the Bayero University, Kano, said as long as the country is dependent on loans from the likes of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the issue of subsidy removal will keep coming up as this is one of the fundamental conditions put forward by the loan givers.

Daily Trust

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