Obi sees ‘forceful removal’ of subsidy as improper to tackle an ‘organised crime’
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Peter Obi says “forceful removal” of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu is not the best way to do it because it is causing more hardship to the masses.
A gradual phasing out that focuses on tackling waste and corruption in the removal process would have been better, Obi tweeted on Tuesday evening after attending proceedings at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja.
Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) both are challenging the election of Tinubu at the PEPC and want it reversed for alleged violations of the law.
He recounted how journalists ambushed him at the entrance of the court and sought to know his views on fuel subsidy, which he described as an “organised crime.”
Obi disclosed that “when I told them [journalists] I don’t speak on the matter before the court, they insisted that I should comment on the subsidy removal, which the government representatives were touting that I am in support of.”
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Long supporter of subsidy removal
“I told them [journalists] that I’ve actually been in support of the removal of subsidies right from the President Goodluck Jonathan era when I was a member of the Economic Management Team,” Obi added, per Nairametrics.
“If you have followed me very well right from the time I was a member of Jonathan’s Economic Management Team, I consistently maintained that subsidy should be removed because I see it as organised crime.
“People were just stealing the resources of the country and I showed it empirically in my statistical analysis that we were not consuming the amount of fuel they claimed we consumed.”
Obi gave the analogy of curing “tooth pain”, saying if you approach a dentist to remove a painful tooth, he will apply a local anesthetic to numb the area around the tooth so you do not feel pain.
“It’s not the same thing as pulling the tooth forcefully, the pain you feel will be different. For me, I will go with the approach of the dentist, while supporting the removal of the tooth because I wouldn’t want to go through the pain of a forceful removal.
“Recall that even when Jonathan’s government wanted to remove it they came up with various relieving policies like Sure-P and others.”
Obi stressed that if he wins his case in court and becomes President, “I will govern with the people and show them statistically and empirically what we are going to save, and what we are going to do using the savings to better the suffering masses.
“The problem in Nigeria is that often government tells the masses to suffer and sacrifice, for a better future; but in the future things get worse.”