The newly inaugurated president, Bola Tinubu, has decided to execute his predecessor’s decision to eliminate fuel subsidy by June.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria has objected to this.
Earlier on Monday, in Abuja, Tinubu declared that his administration would stop providing subsidy.
“The fuel subsidy is gone,” he claimed.
He claimed that it was no longer justifiable to continue considering the significant opportunity cost the Federal Government was bearing to finance subsidies.
According to Tinubu, the subsidy was deleted from the budget as of June 2023 since there was no provision for it. The National Public Relations Officer of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chief Ukadike Chinedu, responded to the recent happenings by saying that the incoming administration should consult with marketers before deciding to eliminate subsidy.
The association says they are not in support of fuel subsidy removal at this time. They went on to say the refineries should be fixed before taking such a decision that will cause galloping inflation and inflict more hardship on the masses.
They said IPMAN was ready to work with the new government and would proffer measures to address the fuel subsidy regime instead of effecting an outright halt in subsidy.
“The government of President Tinubu should not adopt what is in the transition document handed over to it by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari. Someone (Buhari), who for eight years did not remove subsidy is advising a new government to remove it.
“That is not fair and should not be adopted. Rather the new government should sit and discuss with marketers and other stakeholders on how to manage the fuel subsidy regime. We now have the Dangote Refinery, but all our refineries are still not working, so we don’t think removing subsidy is the right thing to do now,” Ukadike stated.
