Fuel Subsidy Removal Date Would Be Decided After Tinubu’s Inauguration 

Keyamo says that the new administration won’t end subsidies till it has provided relief for the general public.

By Omotayo Olutekunbi

After Bola Tinubu’s inauguration next month, the new administration will choose the day when gasoline subsidies would be eliminated.

The existing subsidy scheme expires in June 2023, according to the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Committee, which verified this.

The administration headed by President Muhammadu Buhari has previously said that the initiative’s subsidy policy will come to an end in June when its funding runs out.

Even though Nigerians questioned the scheme, Tinubu insisted during his presidential campaign that if he were elected, his administration would end gasoline subsidies.

Yet with less than two months till his inauguration, concerns have been raised over his proposal to remove subsidies, which might cause petrol prices to rise to N750 per litre.

Festus Keyamo, the PCC spokesperson, discussed the development in an interview with The Punch and stated that Tinubu will determine when to remove it once he assumed office.

He further stated that the new administration will not end subsidies without first providing relief for the general populace.

He said, “It is one of the policies by which we campaigned. I cannot sit here and tell you when exactly it will be done. But the removal of subsidies is something that the president-elect pledged to do. Not only him. Virtually all the leading presidential candidates took the same position.

the reason. But the new government will decide when it wants to. Of course, you know that when a new government takes over, the country is at its beck and call. Yes, I agree that government is a continuum. But all policies are not a continuum.

“I can assure you that the president-elect being who he is will not do that without corresponding palliative (measures) to the masses. I can tell you that confidently.”

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has promised to oppose Tinubu’s proposal to halt gasoline subsidy payments in the meantime.

The organization argued that before the subsidies can be changed, the refineries in the nations must be operational.

Nevertheless, Keyamo warned the NLC not to stir the populace against the program, claiming that all the top presidential contenders, including Peter Obi of the Labour Party, had supported the elimination of subsidies throughout their presidential campaigns.