Former governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, says fuel subsidy has made a comeback, even though many Nigerians remain unaware.
Responding to inquiries from journalists in Maiduguri, Borno State’s capital, El-Rufai disclosed on Monday that the federal government is now footing a larger bill than previously for fuel subsidy.
He pointed out that the assistance measures aimed at mitigating the effects of fuel subsidy were ineffective, prompting a reversal of the policy.
In his inaugural address, President Bola Tinubu had declared the removal of fuel subsidy, deeming its payment unjustifiable.
However, El-Rufai, expressing his backing for the policy, emphasized the necessity for government adjustments.
“Fuel subsidy is another policy that has been implemented by the president, it’s the right policy. I always supported withdrawing fuel subsidy.”
“But, in the course of implementation as you can see the government has now realized that the subsidy has to be back because right now, we are paying a lot of money for subsidy even more than before.
“This is because the impact has been seen and the packages of support that would reduce the impact have not been so effective in reducing the impact, so the federal government is back now subsidizing Petrol.”
He noted that many people are unaware that fuel subsidy has been reinstated, “but, if they want to know whether we are subsidizing or not, they should compare the price of petrol and diesel because petrol should be more expensive than diesel but diesel is priced above a thousand naira while petrol is at N600 per liter.
“So, we are still subsidizing Petrol because the government has realised that they way it implemented the fuel subsidy initially required some adjustments.
That’s what I keep saying about policy and policy pragmatism,” he said.
El-Rufai had earlier delivered a paper titled: “Leadership and Public Policy: Navigating Challenges and Lessons”, at the Capacity-building workshop for Senior Government Officials of Borno State.
