A former lawmaker representing Edo South Senatorial District at the red chamber, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, has stated that former President Muhammadu Buhari did not have the political will to remove fuel subsidies during his tenure.
The former lawmaker commented while featuring on a Channels Television programme on Monday
said heaven would not have fallen if Buhari had done away with the controversial policy.
According to him, the arguments against fuel subsidy were very sound amidst dwindling national revenue.
“You know there are certain decisions that are very difficult to take while you’re in power, and that is why people always say if you have the political will.
“I want to say that the President then didn’t have the political will. Otherwise, if he had removed the subsidy during his time, I don’t think heaven would have fallen because the arguments were very sound, and we needed to do something about the subsidy.
And subsidy has become a big saw, particularly when we are talking about the very scarce resources we have in the country.
“I was in the Senate committee on public accounts, at a time we investigated the consumption of PMS in the country, the figures were not just right. And to think of it that NNPC needed to pay for the subsidy as under recovery for us, and whatever the balance will now come into the federation account. We saw the loopholes, then why don’t we remove the subsidy?
“We know about the issue of public transportation, that’s where we are talking about the big effect on our people, but how many people in the rural place, they form the greater part of our population, do they enjoy anything from the u side,” he stated.
A media aide to the former president, Garba Shehu had come on Monday, to defend his boss on why the subsidies on petrol products, were not removed during Buhari’s administration.
According to him, Buhari did not remove the subsidy because it will make life more difficult for the people because of the naira redesigned policy, and that will make Tinubu lose the 2023 election.
However, Mr Shehu’s comments have generated a lot of reactions from people, who believe his comments at this moment, were not needed because his boss had 8 years to make the decision, but he failed to make it.
