The federal government of Nigeria recently announced a new price for petrol as a result of subsidy removal. However, there has been different reactions from different individuals and bodies as a result of this action.Former Governor Lagos State and a national of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu hailed the removal of petrol subsidy by President Muhammadu Buhari describing it as a courageous decision to reallocate funds to other more socially productive services and undertakings.Tinubu said in a statement that it would have been politically easy for the President to sit back and let the subsidy remain in place, adding that in the art of governance, the easiest policy is rarely the best one.He equally said that:“It was a benefit all were to enjoy. Yet, because past governments were not for and of the people, the true meaning and objective of the subsidy policy became lost. Over the years, the operation of the measure was distorted to where it no longer functioned for the benefit of the masses but for the undue enrichment of a small club of businessmen, some legitimate in their work, some not. Instead of remaining a positive aspect of the social contract, the subsidy was transformed into an opaque haven of intrigue and malfeasance.”
Former governor of Kaduna state, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, was however of a different opinion when he urged the Federal Government to reverse the N145 new petrol pump price introduced on Wednesday.Musa, who is also a national leader of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Kaduna.He said that the government’s action would inflict more pains on Nigerians.“We are in trouble; the already bad situation will get worse and it will worsen the poverty level of Nigerians,“ he said.The politician said that he would support the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) planned mass protest to compel the Federal Government to reverse the decision.Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, also condemned the recent removal of oil subsidy by the Federal government which has caused the pump price of petrol to jump to N145 per liter. According to Falana, Buhari has reneged on his campaign promise of not increasing pump price. Falana said this in a statement he release yesterday May 12th.The Nigerian Labour Congress on Wednesday said it would resist the federal government’s scrapping of fuel subsidy and increase of petrol price to about N145 per litre.
“The unilateral increase in prices of petroleum products today by government represents the height of insensitivity and impunity and shall be resisted by the Nigeria Labour Congress and its civil society allies,” the congress said, through a statement by its General Secretary, Peter Ozo-Eson.
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