Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna state, says the federal government is spending more on petrol subsidy than before.
President Bola Tinubu, in his inauguration speech on May 29, 2023, said the subsidy on petrol “is gone”.
However, speaking with journalists after delivering the lead paper at a capacity-building workshop, in Maiduguri on Monday, el-Rufai said the government has started paying petrol subsidy.
“The federal government is now subsidizing fuel; many people don’t know this,” el-Rufai said.
“It is a right policy. I have always supported the withdrawal of oil subsidy; but in the course of implementing the policy, the government realised that subsidy has to be back; right now, government is spending a lot of money for subsidy, even more than before.
“You start implementing a policy because you are absolutely sure it is the right policy, but in the course of implementation, you come across bottlenecks, and you modify.
“The keyword in leadership, in my view, is pragmatism. You should be pragmatic. So when you make a policy, you start implementing it, and it doesn’t seem to work well. You should have the humility to stand back and say this is not working, and you modify it.”
On August 15, 2023, it was widely reported that President Bola Tinubu is considering a “temporary subsidy” on petrol.
Sources in the presidency told journalists that there is no final decision yet but the proposal is firmly on the table.
