Federal Gov’t Secretly Paying Fuel Subsidy — El-Rufai

Subsidy on the premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, is back in a bigger measure without the the awareness of Nigerians.

Immediate-past governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, disclosed this on Monday while speaking with journalists in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

El-Rufai said although he supported that the subsidy removal policy, he, however, criticised its implementation.

“Fuel subsidy is another policy that has been implemented by the president, it’s the right policy. I always supported withdrawing fuel subsidy,” he said.

He added that measures put in place by the Federal Government as packages to reduce the impact of fuel subsidy removal were ineffective, hence the reversal to the subsidy regime.

“But, in the course of implementation as you can see, the government has now realised that the subsidy has to be back because right now, we are paying a lot of money for subsidy even more than before,” the former governor said.

Recall President Bola Tinubu had on May 29, 2023 during his inaugural speech removed the fuel subsidy in his first major economic policy pronouncement that has been blamed for the current economic situation in the country.

Tinubu had told the nation that the continued payment of subsidy was no longer justifiable.

El-Rufai, however, believed that the policy needed some adjustments by the Federal Government.

“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 subsidising Petrol,” he stated.