LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)-Former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasiru El-Rufai, says that subsidising petrol was the only practical option available to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to prevent a surge in pump prices.
Speaking in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, El-Rufai emphasised that the Federal Government is now shouldering a higher subsidy burden than before.
An official from the Presidency quoted the former governor in a tweet on their official X handle.
On petrol, the former governor said: “Fuel subsidy is another policy that has been implemented by the president, it’s the right policy. I always supported withdrawing fuel subsidy.
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“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.
“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 noted that many Nigerians are unaware that they can afford petrol due to government intervention, which has kept its price lower than that of diesel.
He said: “But, if they want to know whether we are subsidising 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 litre.
“So, we are still subsidising petrol because the government has realised that the way it implemented the fuel subsidy initially required some adjustments. That’s what I keep saying about policy and policy pragmatism.”