NIGERIANS DEMAND FAVOURABLE PRACTICABILITY OF PETROLEUM SUBSIDY REMOVAL

Street comments and complains from across the country want the federal government to put in place measures to ensure that Nigerians will be able to cope with the removal of subsidy from petroleum and its products.  

People are of the view that sudden implementation of subsidy removal which has made price of petrol to jump from around N195 to N500 and above without laid down modalities could ground the economy as was experienced during the new naira redesign that had devastating effects on personal and collective activities.

It would be recalled that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu during his inauguration declared that his administration would effect the much debated removal of subsidy from petroleum to revert the huge fund expended on it and the challenges it poses on the economy. 

In apparent reaction to the pronouncement, petroleum marketers swiftly embarked on unexpected hoarding of the commodity and increment in the price leading to scarcity, hike in transportation and general cost of living.

While many Nigerians have described the petroleum subsidy removal as withdrawal of the little support that government owe the masses, some have also described it as misplaced priority. 

They suggested that government should look into repair of the country’s refinery, address misappropriation of funds across the various sectors of the country and establish implementation strategies for the subsidy removal that will be favourable to the masses.