The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) have fumed at the N3 trillion that was budgeted for fuel subsidy by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning had stated that, according to the state-owned oil and gas firm, N3 trillion is the amount required to continue to subsidise petroleum products for the 18 months extension recently approved by the Presidency.
Ahmed, who broke the news to State House correspondents, explained that Federal Executive Council (FEC) considered the request so as to make additional funding provisions that will enable government meets incremental fuel subsidy payments in the 2022 budget.
Displeased with the N3 trillion fuel subsidy would gulp, the leadership of the NLC and the governors alleged that the fund has over time been mismanaged. Hence, they resolved to enter into a working partnership to investigate consumption and distribution figures released by NNPC regarding petroleum products.
A statement by NGF’s media adviser, AbdulRazaque Bello Barkindo, disclosed that “both parties agreed that the lacuna in the subsidy removal agenda was hidden in the untruths bandied by the administrators of the subsidy, particularly the NNPC, which both groups identify to be at the forefront of the mismanagement of the proceeds that accrued therein.”
On his part, NGF chairman and governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, argued that the nation’s economy is at the precipice and that it has become necessary for the two groups to carefully verify all NNPC’s estimates, to ensure that whatever action is taken on subsidy will be to the benefit of the people and not a few wealthy individuals and their cronies.
His words: “Nigeria has a pump price that is far less than a dollar and is uncomfortable with the removal of subsidy until the challenge of what the NNPC is telling the country is confronted frontally.
“We need a partnership with the NLC to confront the challenges of what the NNPC is about because there is a lot of fraud in the consumption and distribution figures that the country is getting and we can only move forward if the NLC engages all those who are knowledgeable in the field like PENGASSAN to conduct a thorough research into the sector before any further action is taken on subsidy.”
