Malam Nasir El-Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna State, claims that fuel subsidies have returned, yet many Nigerians are unaware of this.
When asked about the federal government’s current payment level by journalists on Monday in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, El-Rufai said that it had increased.
He noted that the policy was reversed because the support packages intended to lessen the effects of the gasoline subsidy were ineffective.
President Bola Tinubu said in his inaugural speech that fuel subsidies will no longer be paid for, citing financial justifications.
El-Rufai, however, who declared his support for the idea, insisted that the government must make the required changes.
“This is because the impact has been seen and the packages of support that would reduce the impact have not been so effective in reducing the impact, so the federal government is back now subsidizing Petrol.”
He said many people don’t know that fuel subsidy is back, “but, if they want to know whether we are subsidizing or not, they should compare the price of petrol and diesel because petrol should be more expensive than diesel but diesel is priced above a thousand naira while petrol is at N600 per liter.
“So, we are still subsidizing Petrol because the government has realized that, the way it implemented the fuel subsidy initially required some adjustments. That’s what I keep saying about policy and policy pragmatism,” he said.
