Sarkin Adar: Buhari Should Remove Petrol Subsidy as Parting Gift to Tinubu

Honourable Musa Sarkin Adar, the Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Resources Upstream, has said that the removal of subsidy should be done by the Buhari-led administration before Bola Ahmed Tinubu is sworn in on May 29.

While speaking to ARISE News on Wednesday, Adar stated, “It is not the Tinubu administration that will remove the oil subsidy when he is sworn in,” going further to say that Nigerians had been the ones to reject the removal of subsidy in the year 2012, which is why the All Progressive’s Congress (APC) were able to campaign for the 2015 elections by promising a later removal of subsidy.

 He then said, “I wish the sitting government will remove subsidy before it goes. That will be the parting gift it could do to Nigerians and the incoming government.” 

Afterwards, he said that he had no doubt that the Tinubu-led administration will bring about desired results when taking care of the issues related with the fuel subsidy. 

He explained that the issue of subsidy removal, has in fact, been a long-standing issue in the country, and that it was necessary as fuel subsidy relied heavily on petroleum products. 

However, as Nigeria does not refine her own oil, the import and export of crude oil and petroleum has led to an increase in the cost of fuel. 

He stated, “If we are refining in this country, there won’t be issue of fuel subsidy, because there will be nothing to subsidise.” He further stated that money had been budgeted for the refineries in Nigeria, but unfortunately, the desired result was not achieved, and so, the government had to increase the importation of petroleum to meet the energy demand of Nigerians.

Speaking on the way forward, he once again referred to the incoming government, saying, “When they come, the government will sit down with Nigerian stakeholders in the market, the NNPC… all these recommendations that are being proposed now will be tabled to them and they will look at it critically. 

“They are people of integrity and they are people who have the concern of the masses at heart, and I am sure that they are also experts within them who will come and advice in the right direction and they do it the right way.”

Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi

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