Chief Edwin Clark, an elder statesman and South-South Leader, has urged President Bola Tinubu to prioritise the provision of palliatives to ameliorate the issues posed by the elimination of gasoline subsidies.
Clark made the plea in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday, saying the government had done the right thing by removing the subsidy.
The South-South Leader said, “They have done the right thing. After all, all the candidates before the 2023 general election had advocated and promised to remove fuel subsidy.
“Everybody regarded it as a scam; it does not exist. Where are these faceless people we are paying the oil subsidy to, how has it benefited the ordinary man in Nigeria?
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“Remember in January 2012, the Jonathan-led administration attempted to remove it, but the very people and leaders who opposed it at that time have now turned round to say yes it must go,” said Clark.
“Some people believe that since Tinubu was talking about subsidy removal during his campaign and also in his manifesto, he should have strategised how to provide the palliative to cushion the effect,” he said.
Clark explained that government workers understood that fuel subsidy had never been in their favour, adding that spending trillions of naira on fuel subsidy is unacceptable.
According to him, if the money is spent on the country’s transportation, education and health sectors, life will be much better: “we will have a better Nigeria.
“Now that a committee has been set up, where all parties will be involved, they should work it out.”
