Not Correct To Say Tinubu Remove Fuel Subsidy – Festus Keyamo

Festus Keyamo, one of the spokespersons for the All Progressives Congress, APC presidential campaign organisation that ushered in Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the 16th Nigeria President, has accused media organisations of mischievous reportage.

Festus Keyamo in a tweet on Tuesday said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu only inherited a regime that never made provision for fuel subsidy to continue effect from June 2023.

It would be recalled that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Monday during his inaugural speech, said the era of Fuel Subsidy has gone. Adding, there was no fuel subsidy in the 2023 budget he’s starting with.

Day after the President stand on fuel subsidy, long queues and scarcity of the petroleum products returned to major cities in Nigeria; causing increased hardship for the residents at the beginning of Bola Ahmed Tinubu led presidency.

Keyamo said a section of the press is mischievously twisting the narrative to that Tinubu government has removed subsidy.

Keyamo said and in quote: “A section of the Press is mischievously twisting the narrative to read that TINUBU’s GOVERNMENT HAS REMOVED SUBSIDY.

“That is NOT CORRECT. TINUBU’s government has merely inherited a regime where there was no provision for subsidy in the 2023 Appropriation Act as from June, 2023 and the Petroleum Industry Act which is now extant has no provision for subsidy.

“President Tinubu merely acknowledged this state of affairs in his inaugural speech at the Eagle Square.

“So any advocate of subsidy should convince the Nigerian people why President Tinubu should start on a note of illegality by promising to reintroduce something which the law has taken away.

“They should also convince the Nigerian people why President Tinubu should embark on a present illegality that gulped $10 billion of our scarce or unavailable resources in 2022 alone.

“Those claiming to defend the right or  welfare of workers should convince the Nigerian people that $10 billion injected into the economy yearly will not jumpstart the economy enough as to create massive jobs and even increase the same minimum wage they complain about.

“That is the conversation the Nigerian people are prepared to have now”.

Another tweet from the office of the Presidency also indicated that ” President Bola Tinubu’s declaration that “subsidy is gone” is neither a new development nor an action of his new administration.

“He was merely communicating the status quo, considering that the previous administration’s budget for fuel subsidy was planned and approved to last for only the first half of the year.

“Effectively, this means that by the end of June, the Federal Government will be without funds to continue the subsidy regime, translating to its termination. The panic-buying that has ensued as a result of the communication is needless; it will not take immediate effect.

“Furthermore, President Tinubu was clear about his plans to re-channel the funds previously devoted to the payment of subsidies into better investments that will cushion the effects of the removal on the general public, especially the poor of the poor.

“This includes but is not limited to investments in public infrastructure, education, healthcare and jobs that will materially improve the lives of millions of Nigerians and increase their earning potential”.