Why Fuel Subsidy Is Not Working – FG

NGOZI OKONJO IWEALA & DIEZANI ALISON MADUEKE

The Federal Government on Monday said payment of subsidy on local consumption of petroleum products was not working because it was subject to abuses.
“The system (fuel subsidy) will not work because there is so much room for abuse. Where ever you go outside Lagos and Abuja, fuel is hardly sold for N97 per litre. Civil society organizations are not speaking against this. They only attack the government. Government cannot be at all filling stations,” Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, said in Abuja.
The declaration by the minister came barely hours after media reports of a suit in which a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in Anambra State, Chief Stanley Okeke, asked a Federal High Court to compel President Goodluck to totally remove subsidy on fuel.
Mr. Maku, who spoke while briefing the media on the achievements of the Federal Government for 2012, lamented the unavailability of premium motor spirit at the control price of N97 per litre outside Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory.
The minister called on civil society organizations to rise up against the exploitation of Nigerians by dealers in petroleum products, arguing that the government could not be at every filling station across the country.
He also urged Nigerians to ask questions on why they cannot buy fuel at the control price.
However, despite the abuses in the system, Maku reiterated government’s continuation of the subsidy regime because it was the wish of the people.
He said, “Government has paid subsidy for every litre of fuel sold in this country but dealers are selling above the regulated price. We have not deregulated fuel pump prices. For every price above N97 per litre, Nigerians are paying twice.
“People are profiteering from the system and it is wrong. Nigerians should have mercy on Nigerians. We are retaining the subsidy because that is what people want now.”
InformationNigeria