A former lawmaker that represented Edo South Senatorial District, Matthew Urhoghide, says former President Muhammadu Buhari didn’t have the political will to remove fuel subsidy during his administration.
Urhoghide made the claim on Monday while fielding questions on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.
The former lawmaker 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.
He said, “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 really want to say that the President then didn’t have the political will. Otherwise, if he had removed 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 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 was 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 subsidy?”
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