The National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Felix Morka, said President Bola Tinubu did not unilaterally remove Nigeria’s petrol subsidy, arguing that legislation had already abolished the policy before the President assumed office.
NEWSNGR reports that Morka made the clarification during an interview on Arise News while defending the administration’s decision to proceed with the subsidy removal and responding to criticisms from former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his allies.
The APC spokesman said the National Assembly, under the previous administration, had already legislated the removal of the subsidy and that no provision was made in the 2023 budget for its payment.
Morka said, “When you say this president on day one announced a subsidy was gone, you forget, and I think we need to remind Nigerians, that the National Assembly under the previous government had already completely removed subsidy.
“There was no budgetary provision to pay for subsidy in 2023. That was gone already. So the president simply announced what the National Assembly had legislated.”
Morka argued that the country’s financial position made it increasingly difficult for the government to sustain the subsidy regime.
He claimed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) was not remitting funds to the national treasury when Tinubu took office, while a substantial share of government revenue went to subsidy payments and debt servicing.
“The NMPC was not contributing a dollar to the National Treasury at the time that this president was inaugurated. So where was the money going to come from?” he asked.
According to Morka, more than 93 per cent of the country’s earnings were being consumed by subsidy payments and debt servicing, making the policy financially unsustainable.
The APC spokesman acknowledged that ending the subsidy would inevitably cause hardship because Nigerians had become accustomed to artificially low petrol prices.
“When you have created, our country has created a system of dependency on subsidy, on cheap fuel, there was no way to remove it that the consequences that we have had to deal with would not be present,” he said.
He argued that retaining the subsidy would have perpetuated opportunities for corruption and rent-seeking, while worsening the country’s financial position.
Morka said the economy could have deteriorated further if Tinubu had opted to maintain the previous arrangement.
“This country today would have been long gone. The economy as we know it today would have been long expired had this president not taken the action that he did,” he said.
The APC spokesman also accused Atiku and his spokespersons of appealing to the emotions of Nigerians in their criticism of the subsidy removal.
Morka maintained that the former Vice President and his allies understood the economic realities surrounding the policy but were presenting the issue differently for political reasons.
