The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has declared fresh support for the fuel subsidy removal by President Bola Tinubu.
According to him, removing the fuel subsidy was not an easy decision, but it was already creating a hole in the national purse.
He argued that fuel subsidy was draining the country’s finances and had become a channel for diverting funds while the masses expected to benefit from it did not enjoy it.
NEWSNGR reports that Sanwo-Olu made the submission on Thursday while speaking at the Freedom Online 7th Annual Lecture.
He argued that opposition politicians had turned the promise of bringing back the fuel subsidy regime into a campaign tool for the 2027 election.
The Lagos State Governor, however, warned that the country could not afford to bring back the fuel subsidy regime.
“The subsidy was not removed because anybody enjoyed removing it, it was removed because it had become a hole in the national purse through which the money for roads, schools and hospitals was draining away,” he said.
The governor also noted that all major presidential candidates in the 2023 election had promised to remove the subsidy, but only President Bola Tinubu, who won the election, had the opportunity to implement it.
“In the 2023 election, every major candidate promised to remove it. Only one of them was in a position to do it, and he did it on his first day in office,” Sanwo-Olu said.
His comments come amid the renewed calls by the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, for the restoration of the petrol subsidy, with a promise to restore the policy if elected in 2027.
