ADC also noted that despite the Minister of Finance’s level of intelligence, he failed to realise that “subsidy is ideological“.
By Kehinde Okeowo
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has asserted that the Minister of Finance, Taiwo Oyedele, does not have the right educational background to properly process issues relating to the fuel subsidy scheme.
The opposition party made the claim on Monday when its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, appeared as a guest on Channels Television’s programme Politics Today.
Earlier, Oyedele announced that the Federal Government would offer a discount on petrol sold by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) for the next 30 days.
Reacting to the Federal Government’s proposal to briefly reduce fuel prices, Abdullahi noted that despite the fact that the Minister is an “intelligent guy”, he failed to realise that “subsidy is ideological”.
He further noted that there is a remarkable difference in how accountants and economists view a country’s economy.
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Giving his opinion during the interview, Abdullahi said: “I’m not saying Oyedele is incompetent, but I think he doesn’t have the right education because the issue of subsidy is ideological, and we have to understand where you are coming from.
“He’s an intelligent guy, and I respect him for that. However, the way an accountant views the economy is different from the way an economist does, and vice versa.”
Speaking further on the subsidy scheme during the chat, the ADC reiterated the need to subsidise production to alleviate the suffering of the people, insisting that poor Nigerians could not be left without subsidies.
Abdullahi added: “We cannot have people so poor and leave them without subsidy. So, we (ADC) are going to subsidise production.
”I’m glad that the NNPC audit report is showing this now, and Nigerians are going to see in the coming days. We are going to look more into this.
”You can also ask: Where will the crude come from? We are an oil-producing country. Whatever we need to do to subsidise the production of crude and deliver cheaper fuel to Nigerians, we are going to do it.”
