A Chieftain of the Labour Party (LP), Chinedu Onyeizu, has advised the Federal Government to consider the gradual removal of fuel subsidies rather than a one-off or total removal.
Onyeizu gave the advice in an interview with the media on Wednesday in Abuja.
He urged the government to first, work out actionable programs that would enable it to eliminate the subsidy without the masses suffering from the decision.
“I am not of the view that subsidy should be removed entirely at once. I am of the view that it should be gradually wound down.
“My recommendation is that we have a plan first, as a country. We should have the plan to say in the next three years we will no longer be paying for subsidies and then we start working on the plan.
“If you immediately start implementing the plan the amount of money you pay for subsidy will start reducing.
“That is why I say wind subsidy payment and in another three years, you should have completely eliminated subsidy.
“While you do that you are able to put in place programs that will alleviate the suffering of the people if the subsidy is removed.’’
Onyeizu described subsidy payments as the most sustained “scam” any government could put on its people.
He said that with the quantity and quality of crude oil God blessed the country with, fuel importation or subsidy payment should not be an option to be discussing if the right things were done.
“My background is in petroleum engineering; I worked in the oil industry for about 18 years and I understand that Nigeria has more than 38 billion barrels of crude oil in reserves or backyards.
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“I also know that Nigeria’s crude oil is the best form of crude oil in the world which is the reason why it is called sweet crude.
“So, it does not make logical sense that with that volume of crude in our reserves and our backyards, we should continue to import fuel and pay subsidies for our people to access by-products of crude oil,’’ he said.
Onyeizu recalled that in 2017, he carried out research on subsidy removal at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, where he looked at all the factors that contribute to subsidy payment or fuel scarcity in Nigeria.
He said that in the research report, he made actionable recommendations that government could consider for the purpose of eliminating subsidy payments in Nigeria.
He said it was, however, unfortunate that the recommendations were not considered by those who were to look into it.
“I am happy to share the details with the government because the objective of the study was to reposition Nigeria to become a global hub for petroleum-related businesses in the world and not just Africa.
“Because a lot of people make fortune out of the subsidy payment regime, it could continue to be a problem for the country and our leaders to handle.
“What we need is someone who has the will, political will, to look at those recommendations and implement them.’’
The chieftain also advised Nigerian youths to believe in themselves and their dreams, saying there was nothing they would not be able to achieve if they set their mind to it
“I don’t believe in young people traveling out of the country. It will lead to brain drain at some points.
“I believe no matter how bad Nigeria has become we can all put our hands together, and task our brains to find solutions to our various problems by ourselves. We need to make Nigeria work for every Nigerian.’’
