November 28, (THEWILL) – General Overseer of Evangelical Bible Outreach Ministry International, Prophet Isa El Buba, has advised the Federal Government to tread cautiously on the issue of fuel subsidy removal next fiscal year, advising it to rather “look inward and put its house in order”.
Addressing journalists in Jos, Buba said the Federal Government planned to spend about N200 billion to cushion the effects of the removal of the subsidy in one month.
Buba said, “The argument that fuel is cheap in Nigeria cannot be sustained because whatever the government does is about the welfare of the people. That is why when the Vice President came, we asked him to go back to the streets, to the market and talk to the ordinary people about the skyrocketing cost of food items, so that he can feel the pulse and the state of the common people.
“Some of the policy makers that are there, I can say, are just wicked in their approach towards the state of the poor masses. So, it is uncalled for for them to think of and call for the removal of subsidy. I thought, from what they said when they came to power – that the issue of subsidy has been taken care of, so coming back to be talking of subsidy now shows that there was no truth in what they said,” Buba noted.
Thus Buba advised the government to listen to the wise counsel of people of thought and to continue to offer perspectives and alternatives to this thorny issue.
Citing the example of the spiraling price of cooking gas, he expressed the opinion that the government should listen and appreciate the voices of reason, especially, as he noted, Nigeria is a place where prices of goods go up and do not drop again. In spite of deregulation of prices of petroleum products, he said the federal government could weigh in with some intervention to check the prospect of over hike in the cost of transportation.
“The pain of the situation is that the cost of things are increasing, but the salaries of workers are not increasing and the welfare of the citizens is not improving and some of the businesses are shutting down because they cannot afford to pay their staff. Removing fuel subsidy now will shut the opportunities to create jobs and improve the welfare of the citizens,” he said.
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