Former Trade Union Congress president Peter Esele stated that he was not shocked that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration put the elimination of fuel subsidies on hold in June.
In a Channels Television interview on Friday, Esele made this disclosure.
Recall that despite the fact that it would save Nigeria about N6 trillion in income, the federal government had suspended the National Economic Council’s proposal to remove fuel subsidies.
But Esele, a former president of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, said the Buhari administration would have removed the fuel subsidy one year into its government if it wanted to phase out the regime.
According to him, Buhari is simply beating about the bush on fuel subsidy removal in the last eight years without the political will to achieve it.
“I think this government, if they wanted to remove fuel subsidies, would have done it in the first year of their administration when they had huge political capital to expend, but since it was not done, what they have been doing over the years is kicking the can down the room”, he said.
According to industry data, from May 2015 to May 29, 2023, Buhari’s administration would have spent close to N10 trillion on fuel subsidies.
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