Nigeria’s fuel subsidy has been removed in principle, says Lamido

Reps deny N2b bribe to support policy

JIGAWA State Governor, Sule Lamido, has declared that the subsidy on petroleum products has already been removed, as it was not captured in this year’s budget hence the Federal Government has been imposing tax on the states to make up for over N1.4 trillion needed to offset the bill.

Lamido stated this yesterday at a workshop organised for Business Editors and Finance Correspondents by the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) in Dutse, the state capital.

Meanwhile, the fuel subsidy controversy assumed a different dimension yesterday as the House of Representatives denied receiving N2 billion as bribe from the Presidency to support the policy.

Speculations were rife in the last two days within the National Assembly that the leadership of the House had collected and shared to members N2 billion to support subsidy removal.

Incidentally, the House rose from a closed-door session yesterday and directed its Committee on Appropriations to work on the request by the President to effect structural changes in the 2011 Budget, with a view to implementing the fuel subsidy.

The total amount involved in the re-ordering of the 2011 budget in this way is N98.2 billion.

The Committee was asked to submit its report within one week to allow the House pass the virement proposal, which it stood down two months ago.

Speaking with reporters on the alleged N2 billion bribe, House Spokesman and Chairman, House Committee on Media Affairs, Zakari Mohammed, said there was no relationship between the decision of the House to pass the virement proposal and the alleged bribe.

According to him, there was no iota of truth in the allegation because the House leadership would not compromise the mandate given to it by members.

Although he claimed that all governors had endorsed the subsidy removal, Lamido lamented that the burden of the policy had been shifted to the states.

His words: “Officially as a matter of the law, the subsidy is gone. If you look at our budget, the subsidy is gone but then the capacity to actually say it is what is lacking. This is because if you say so, a PDP man will abuse you, ACN and CPC will abuse you but here are their governors refusing to contribute to take care of the subsidy. They are saying “give us our money for our people because they want us to take care of their projects.”

“This year alone the Federal, state and local governments are to pay N1.4 trillion to fuel importers and a state like Jigawa, which is so poor, is being forced to contribute about N3 billion on this. This means Jigawa will contribute about N45 to N50 billion on subsidy, yet the cars in Jigawa State are not more than those in one small corner in Surulere in Lagos. In one traffic holdup in Lagos, you will get the whole number of cars in Jigawa State. I am being made to pay for people in Lagos.”

Lamido observed that “while the debate is on, only a few courageous individuals could come out, damning the consequences, to openly tell Nigerians the truth of what the country stands to benefit from the removal of the fuel subsidy.”

He added: “Leaders should be courageous to come up with decisions that would favour Nigerians despite the difficulties, but today Nigerians, because of the deregulation debate, only those that are courageous say the truth and that is why I like the effort of the Governor of the Central Bank who said we either deregulate or we are in trouble.”

The governor said if he had for three years the N50 billion Jigawa was being forced to part with, as fuel subsidy, he would have turned the state to “a wonderland.”

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By Azimazi Momoh Jimoh, (Abuja) and John Akubo (Dutse)