The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi has said even though he supports removal of fuel subsidy, it should not have been sudden. His comment comes after President Bola Tinubu had, during his inauguration as President, announced the end of subsidy on petrol. Obit in a Twitter post on Tuesday, said he had always supported the removal of fuel subsidy since the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan when he was a member of the Economic Management Team. He wrote: “As I attended my ongoing petition case at the Court of Appeal today, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, judicial correspondents ambushed me at the entrance of the court and demanded that I should talk to them.When I told them I don’t speak on the matter before the court, they insisted that I should comment on the subsidy removal, which the government representatives were touting that I am in support of.Reacting, I told them that I’ve actually been in support of the removal of subsidies right from the President Goodluck Jonathan era, when I was a member of the Economic Management team.If you have followed me very well right from the time I was a member of Jonathan’s economic management team, I consistently maintained that subsidy should be removed because I see it as organized crime.People were just stealing the resources of the country and I showed it empirically in my statistical analysis that we were not consuming the amount of fuel they claimed we consumed.I also gave them the “tooth pain” removal analogy that if you approach a dentist to remove a painful tooth, he will apply a local anesthetic to numb the area around the tooth so you do not feel pain. It’s not the same thing as pulling the tooth forcefully, the pain you feel will be different. For me, I will go with the approach of the dentist, while supporting the removal of the tooth because I wouldn’t want to go through the pain of a forceful removal.Recall that even when Jonathan’s government wanted to remove it they came up with various relieving policies like Sure-P and others.If you read my manifesto you will see clearly how I planned to remove subsidies. I will govern with the people and show them statistically and empirically what we are going to save, and what we are going to do using the savings to better the suffering masses.The problem in Nigeria is that often government tell the masses to suffer and sacrifice, for a better future; but in future things gets worse. -PO”
