By OUR REPORTER
“We’ve been on this subsidy for decades and a few more months would not have killed us. You can see the difference in lifestyle now.”
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Prof Itse Sagay, says President Bola Tinubu should have waited six months after his inauguration before removing subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol.
He made this known during a conversation around the future of Nigeria, when the senior lawyer spoke as a guest on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, aired on Channels Television on Friday February 9, 2024.
The DEFENDER reports that in a country where economy is dependent largely on importation and the value of what it has of natural resources like of crude oil and gold is allowed to be tied not to its own currency – Naira in the case of Nigeria – but United States of America’s Dollar, removing subsidy on commodities in that situation becomes a big trouble to both nation and citizens.
Although this reality is well known to the West that developing countries, which International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) it controls had pushed to remove fuel subsidies but was vehemently rejected by the Nigerian government under President Muhammadu Buhari, how the eyes of present time Nigerians and government leaders are yet to be open to the fact that the West does not want good lives for them remains a question still begging for answer.
One of Nigerians, who know the truth about the place of subsidy in an importation dependent country, is Professor Sagay and he blamed the sudden manner in which Nigerian President Bola Tinubu removed petrol subsidy in his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023 for the problem saying it created untold hardship for the country and the people.
Sagay, the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) from 2015 to 2023, said the Tinubu administration should have waited for the commencement of petrol production locally before yanking off subsidy on the premium commodity.
“Petrol is critical to our lives. The cost of living is going up, and basic living is now expensive. I think we might have gone on for another six months and as internal production was coming up, then the subsidy can be removed,” he said.
Continuing, Sagay said, “The immediacy and the sudden manner of the decision to remove petrol subsidy has created an immediate level of hardship which is almost becoming unbearable.”
“I am not in full agreement with the way and order some of the things are being done now. On the issue of petrol, I would have been happier if the government had been patient to allow internal production to commence before removing the subsidy.
“Now, Dangote is now producing. And of course, the refinery in Port Harcourt is almost ready. Perhaps, if we had waited a little longer, the transition will not have been harsh. We are in it already but I think we are in competent hands and we will get out of it.
“We’ve been on this subsidy for decades and a few more months would not have killed us. You can see the difference in lifestyle now.”
Sagay also said there must be a stop to the “deterioration of the value of the naira”. He said, “I never dreamt that there would be a time when the dollar would change for over N1,000 to a dollar. It has to stop, otherwise, it will destroy everything that the government is trying to do.”
The senior lawyer, however, expressed confidence in the new government and its ability to provide quality leadership for the Nigerian people. “They are people who know what they are doing. I have faith in them and I believe that as time goes on, the pressure on Nigerians will ease, hardship will decrease and we will be in a much better position that we are in now,” he said.
