Festus Keyamo, former Minister of State for Labour and Employment, slammed a section of the media on Tuesday for reporting that President Bola Tinubu had removed fuel subsidies.
He described the reports as shady.
Tinubu’s administration, according to Keyamo, simply inherited a regime in which there was no provision for subsidy in the 2023 Appropriation Act from June.
Speaking on Twitter, the former Minister challenged subsidy advocates to persuade Nigerians why President Tinubu should begin on an illegal note by promising to restore something that the law has taken away.
He urged those opposed to its repeal to persuade Nigerians that the $10 billion originally allocated for fuel subsidies would not jumpstart the economy if channeled into other sectors.
His words;
A section of the Press is mischievously twisting the narrative to read that TINUBU’s GOVERNMENT HAS REMOVED SUBSIDY. That is NOT CORRECT. TINUBU’s govt has merely inherited a regime where there was no provision for subsidy in the 2023 Appropriation Act as of June 2023 and the Petroleum Industry Act which is now extant has no provision for subsidy. President Tinubu merely acknowledged this state of affairs in his inaugural speech at Eagle Square.
So any advocate of subsidy should convince the Nigerian people why President Tinubu should start on a note of illegality by promising to reintroduce something which the law has taken away. They should also convince the Nigerian people why President Tinubu should embark on a present illegality that gulped $10 billion of our scarce or unavailable resources in 2022 alone.
Those claiming to defend the right or welfare of workers should convince the Nigerian people that $10 billion injected into the economy yearly will not jumpstart the economy enough as to create massive jobs and even increase the same minimum wage they complain about.
That is the conversation the Nigerian people are prepared to have now.
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