.. Says Trillions Saved Have Vanished Into ‘Fake Ministries, Fake Agencies’
.. Challenges FG To account For Trillions Realised From Subsidy Removal
Daud Olatunji
Former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has defended the removal of fuel subsidy, insisting that the policy itself was not the problem but the Federal Government’s handling of the trillions of naira saved from its implementation.
Obi said critics were not opposed to subsidy removal but to what he described as the failure of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to transparently invest the proceeds in critical sectors capable of improving the lives of Nigerians.
Speaking during an interview on Sunday Issues, excerpts of which were obtained by PLATFORM TIMES, Obi maintained that he had consistently pledged to remove fuel subsidy long before the 2023 presidential election.
According to him, the subsidy regime had become riddled with corruption and was no longer sustainable.
“Nobody has criticised him for removing subsidy. The problem is not the removal of subsidy, but where the savings were invested,” Obi said.
“As you can see, the money is going to fake ministries, fake agencies, fake this and fake that. That’s what we need to deal with.”
He argued that subsidy removal was necessary to eliminate corruption associated with the system, but stressed that the savings should have been channelled into sectors such as education, healthcare and poverty reduction.
“I said I would remove subsidy because we cannot continue to borrow money to pay subsidy. After removing it, we saved trillions. The question is: where are the trillions invested?” he asked.
“If I remove subsidy, it is because I want to invest the savings in critical areas like education, health and pulling people out of poverty. Have you seen that happen?”
Obi further alleged that despite the subsidy removal, Nigeria’s debt profile had continued to rise.
He claimed the Tinubu administration had borrowed more than previous governments combined while still owing electricity generation companies and contractors.
“This government has borrowed more than all the previous governments put together. We are still owing generation companies and contractors, yet Nigerians cannot point to any significant improvement in their living conditions,” he said.
Responding to suggestions that states were benefiting from increased federal allocations following subsidy removal, Obi dismissed the claim that ordinary Nigerians were feeling the impact.
“I don’t doubt that money is going to the states, but are Nigerians feeling the impact? Poverty is increasing. Hunger is everywhere. Every global index shows that Nigeria is among the hungriest countries in the world,” he stated.
“I’ll follow you to your village. Show me where people are actually feeling the impact.”
The former Anambra State governor also downplayed claims that improvements in road construction reflected the benefits of the policy, insisting that investment in human capital remained more important.