The Majority Leader of the House of
Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, who was one of the strong opponents of the
fuel subsidy removal in the past, has given reasons why he along with some
others are in support of it now.
Gbajabiamila, in an open letter to Nigerians, said based on the facts and figures presented to them by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachukwu, at the meeting where the decision was taken on Wednesday, if the subsidy was not removed, Nigeria would be in an “economic cul-de-sac” and that many states would practically stop functioning.
The House Leader, who in 2010 wrote
an open letter to the then acting President Goodluck Jonathan, “vehemently
opposed any attempt to remove subsidy,” said this time around, he was
“confronted with a gloomy picture.”
He said during the 2012 subsidy debate, he had “argued vociferously and with a strong conviction, that the idea of palliatives was irrelevant as the palliative measures proposed by the government then such as infant mortality, child care, transportation etc were things that belonged to citizens as of right and which government under Chapter 2 of the Constitution were obligated to provide and therefore government was in no way doing Nigerians a favour.
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