The Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC Ekiti Central ) , declared in Abuja on Monday how key beneficiaries of fuel subsidies made governance difficult for President Bola Tinubu in the first eighteenth month of his administration.
This is as he expressed confidence that the 2025 Appropriation Act would largely solve the country’s socio-economic challenges not only at the national level, but also at the sub-national level.
Bamidele made this clarification in a personally signed statement , highlighting the imperatives of fuel subsidy removal at the inception of the Tinubu administration.
He specifically explained the socio-economic and political predicament that confronted the president, describing how the economic predators fought and undermined his administration because he removed the fuel subsidy in the overriding public interest.
He said : “I am convinced that the president did the right thing by removing the fuel subsidy, for which the 9th National Assembly made provision till May 2023. But the people that made governance difficult for President Tinubu were those benefiting from fuel subsidies.
“It was not common men and women of this country who were benefiting from the fuel subsidy. It was not. It was members of the cabal who had access to the fuel subsidy. They are the ones taking away this privilege all in the name and on behalf of masses. And the masses did not benefit from it.
“I was part of the 9th National Assembly. At that time, we had agreed with the executive arm that the fuel subsidy should be removed because it was no longer in the overriding interest of the country.
“The Tinubu administration acted based on the policy direction the National Assembly approved before his inauguration on May 29, 2023.
“In the 2023 budget, the National Assembly only made provision for fuel subsidy till May 2023. Whether President Tinubu was removed at his inauguration or not, there was no longer funding for subsidy because we did not make provision for it beyond May 2023.
“He did not say he was going to remove the fuel subsidy. He simply said fuel subsidy was gone simply because the National Assembly only made provision for it till May 2023. Even if he did not say it, the fuel subsidy would have gone in two days after his inauguration.”
Bamidele noted that if the National Assembly made provision for subsidy, it would definitely deny all the sub-national governments from receiving adequate statutory transfers from the Federation Accounts to run their administration.
He further noted that if the fuel subsidy was retained, it would have automatically plunged the country into an intractable fiscal crisis, possibly another economic meltdown because the country no longer had the capacity to fund the subsidy programme again.
He revealed that the proceeds realised from the fuel subsidy “are now being allocated directly to the sub-national governments to drive development and boost domestic economy. These are the points we need to emphasise in our public engagement.
“Running an economy indeed calls for strategic response. The strategic steps being taken are not something that will yield a positive outcome within 24 hours. If subsidy has not been removed, our economy will have been in shambles or will have been flat on the floor.
“This administration has not been in office for up to two years. Some much has been achieved across all strategic sectors, and diverse reforms are ongoing to further deepen the gains of the administration. If fuel subsidy is retained, only God knows what will have happened to this federation”, he explained.
Bamidele, also, assured Nigerians that the 2025 Appropriation Act would largely solve diverse challenges that had been confronting the country not only at the national level, but also at the sub-national level.
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