President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olumide Akpata,
on Monday, said that the federal government’s decision to suspend fuel subsidy
removal was linked to the 2023 general elections.
The federal government on Tuesday, said there won’t be any
removal of fuel subsidy due to perceived difficulties associated with it.
Minister of Finance, Hajia Zainab Ahmed, said the federal
government was initially looking at the removal of fuel subsidy from July this
year, after making adequate provisions in the 2022 budget to cushion the
effect.
Speaking on Channels Television on Monday, Akpata said the
decision to postpone the planned subsidy removal is a temporary solution due to
the 2023 elections.
According to him, not suspending fuel subsidy removal would
have be suicidal because election is just around the corner.
“The subsidy issue is a hot potato for any government,
particularly, in this part of the world. I would have loved to think that the
decision to suspend fuel subsidy removal is because the government cares so
much about the people, and that it is a government that is listening to the
cries of the people, because indeed, as the minister of finance mentioned, it
would be really tough if subsidy removal is implemented at this time with all
of the other supervening circumstances.
“However, something tells me that this has more to do with
what is in the offing, an election is coming up.”
“Those kinds of hard decisions I don’t think are the kind of
decisions you want to take going into an election. Those are my thoughts. I may
be wrong.
“I’m persuaded that this is just a temporary solution
pending when the political juggernauts come back from the field,” he added.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com