Senator Dino Melaye, a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has defended the party’s proposal to restore fuel subsidy, saying the policy is aimed at making Nigeria more affordable for citizens.
Melaye said restoring the subsidy would reduce the price of petrol from the current level of about N1,400 per litre to between N400 and N500, with a corresponding impact on the prices of goods and services.
He made the remarks during an interview on Democracy Today, an AIT programme, on Monday.
According to the former lawmaker, the high cost of fuel has affected transportation, the movement of goods and commodities, aviation and other areas of the economy.
“Let’s go back to what we want to do. First, the ADC is coming to make Nigeria once again affordable. That is our principal objective.
“We want to make Nigeria affordable again. Today, I don’t need to tell you, there’s no APC markets. There’s no APC petrol station.
“Even those salty APC, including my brother here, we all go to the same market. If he lives here and he’s going to foil his car, he will buy it at 1,400. So, everybody is concerned that you have moved us from hunger into fasting, compulsory fasting.”
Melaye argued that fuel prices have a direct effect on several sectors of the economy, describing petroleum products as a key link connecting different aspects of economic activity.
“The country is completely gone, economically and otherwise. What ADC is saying is that we are going to make Nigeria affordable again by bringing back foreign subsidies. I was trying to come into that.
“Everything is around this subsidy. Once transportation is affected, movement of goods and commodities is affected.
“Aviation fuel is also affecting movement in the air. So, this fuel you are looking at is actually the interconnector to every other facet of your economy.”
He further argued that what is described as fuel subsidy has, in his view, largely involved corruption and the diversion of public resources.
“So, what we intend to do is that at the initial, there is no subsidy. What you have is corruption. It’s money being stolen. So, instead of the corruption, we are replacing corruption now by leveraging on the people.
“What corrupt individuals, few people are taking away, we are taking it back.”
Asked whether the ADC intended to restore fuel subsidy, Melaye responded: “We are bringing back subsidies 100% because subsidies, there is nothing like subsidies. What we have is corruption.”
He said the policy would redirect resources towards Nigerians and ultimately lower the prices of petroleum products.
“We put few people stealing our common patrimony, stealing our common wealth and taking it away. Atiku is saying, I am going to take this thing from these few people and then giving it back to you, the people.
“And by so doing, the positive concomitant effect is that there will be a reduction in the price of petroleum products.
“DPK, kerosene, diesel, jet fuel and PMS petrol. And once there is reduction from 1,400, you start buying fuel at 500 or at 400, definitely it’s going to have a resultant effect on every other facet, including price of goods and commodities. Nigerians will now start having an affordable lifestyle because what is happening is stealing.”
Melaye also questioned the government’s borrowing levels, comparing borrowing under former President Muhammadu Buhari, when fuel subsidy was in place, with borrowing under the current administration.
“During Buhari, with fuel subsidy, please take note of this, with foreign subsidy, Buhari borrowed 87 trillion Naira. With fuel subsidy. Without foreign subsidy.
“And Buhari mind you, in eight years, with fuel subsidy, he borrowed 87 trillion. Today, in three years, without subsidy, not paying subsidy, borrowed 157 trillion. Why will you be borrowing when you are making more?”
COURTESY: Leadership
