Return of Petrol Subsidy will worsen poverty – NOA DG

Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lanre Issa-Onilu, has kicked against the return of fuel subsidy, which according to him will worsen poverty. One of the demands of the #EndBadGovernance protesters is the return of subsidy. But in his nationwide broadcast on Sunday, President Bola Tinubu ruled out returning subsidy, saying removing was painful […]

Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lanre Issa-Onilu, has kicked against the return of fuel subsidy, which according to him will worsen poverty.

One of the demands of the #EndBadGovernance protesters is the return of subsidy.

But in his nationwide broadcast on Sunday, President Bola Tinubu ruled out returning subsidy, saying removing was painful but necessary.

He said subsidy had been a “noose around the economic jugular of our Nation” and had hindered economic development and programmes”.

Speaking on Sunrise Daily, Channels Television breakfast programme, on Wednesday, Issa-Onilu advised Nigerians to map out survival strategies amid the economic fallout of the removal of petrol subsidy.

“Anybody who is making a demand that subsidy removal should be brought back is making an emotional demand, not an economic demand because you have to also prove that if it is brought back, it will solve the issue of poverty; it will not, it will aggravate it.”

“So, what we should be doing is: How do we survive in spite of the removal?’ We need to promote all the efforts of this government to ensure that we survive without that subsidy.”

He also admitted the trust deficit between leaders and followers in the country due to repeated cases of broken promises over the years.

“It is difficult to talk to a people who have for several years been let down. Nigerians feel let down. The first question they ask you is: ‘Is this another promise that will not be kept?’ So, we must prove to Nigerians that this government is keeping to its promises,” he said.

In an interview with Financial Times, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo faulted the manner in which the subsidy was removed by the government.

According to him, the government should have implemented some measures before the subsidy removal.

He, however, explained that the subsidy had “come back” due to the inflation rate.

“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. Not just wake up one morning and say you removed the subsidy. Because of inflation, the subsidy that we have removed is not gone. It has come back,” Obasanjo said.