Ahead of planned removal of fuel subsidy, the Federal Government has mandated the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to ensure that its retail outlets being opened nationwide reach a considerable parts of the country.
Saturday Tribune gathered that the mandate became necessary as the Federal Government is said to have resolved to address a situation where the independent marketers will not hold fuel consumers to ransom by refusing to lift fuel or cause artificial scarcity once the subsidy is removed.
The Federal Government, according to sources, who spoke with the Saturday Tribune on condition of anonymity, is yet to decide on the time the fuel subsidy will be removed, even as widespread condemnation has trailed the state governors’ call on the Federal Government for the planned removal.
Reports had indicated that President Goodluck Jonathan has been put under pressure by the state governors to remove fuel subsidy running into billions of naira as a precondition to pay the N18,000 minimum wage, which has been a contentious issue since the coming of new government on May 29, 2011.
The governors had initially been working towards getting the revenue sharing formula hiked to 42 per cent in favour of states to enable them pay the minimum wage to their workers conveniently.
Presidency source informed the Saturday Tribune that though the issue of fuel subsidy removal is topmost on the agenda, he, however, disclosed that the government would not rush into it just because the state governors made the call for “their own selfish reason.”
According to the source, the new government will stabilise itself before deciding on when and how the fuel subsidy removal policy would take effect.
Meanwhile, a cross section of the people who spoke with the Saturday Tribune in Abuja on the governors’ panicky call for fuel subsidy removal stated that the state chief executives had betrayed the trust of the people who voted them into power.
Mrs. Florence Ijeoma, an assistant director in one of the key ministries, described the call as highly insensitive to the plight of the common man.
According to her, because the civil servants in the states are clamouring for N18,000 minimum wage , the state governors, who have no hiding place unless they pay the money just wanted a situation where the money so collected by workers would have no impact on them.
An Independent petroleum marketer, Alhaji Hassan Ibn Ahmed, informed the Saturday Tribune that the removal of fuel subsidy at this time would greatly hurt the average Nigerian.
Condemning what he described as the governors’ hasty call for fuel subsidy removal, Alhaji Ahmed said the governors should have allowed the NNPC to complete its programme of having its retail outlets in all the nooks and crannies of the country before calling for subsidy removal.
Urging President Jonathan not to listen to the governors, the oil magnate said the ripple effects of oil subsidy removal at this point in time would be more than what the governors bargained for when crisis erupts.
A man of God, the General Overseer of Our Lords Vineyard, Rev. Pastor Adamu Sule, admonished the president not to listen to the governors whom he described as not having the love of their people at heart.
However, the governors have an ally in the person of the interim president of the Nigerian Association of Small Scale Enterprises (NASSI), Dr. Albert Akinyemi, who said the governors were right in demanding for fuel subsidy removal if that would increase the revenue accruable to the states and local government councils.
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