A few hours to his departure for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia, on Sunday, President Goodluck Jonathan met with the National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party to sell, his fuel subsidy removal plan.
Jonathan, according to a source at the meeting which held in the Presidential Villa on Friday, told the PDP chieftains that removing the fuel subsidy was inevitable as failure to do so could lead to the collapse of the economy.“The President told us that there was the need to remove the subsidy and that though he appreciated the pains Nigerians would pass through after the removal, he said it was necessary if we did not want the economy to collapse,” the source confided in one of our correspondents at the weekend.
At the meeting were also zonal chairmen of the ruling party.
It was learnt that the meeting was the first forum at which the President intimated his party about the controversial proposal to remove fuel subsidy beginning from January next year.
Jonathan, had in his administration’s Medium Term Expenditure Framework, submitted to the Senate on October 4, said fuel subsidy removal would begin in January, 2012.
He had said that N1.2trn saved from the subsidy removal would be spent on providing social projects for the poor.
It was gathered that the Friday meeting, which started around 10pm, dragged on for a long time as party leaders were giving the opportunity of asking questions, to which the President reportedly provided answers.
The source said, “Apart from that, he also said the planned removal would be followed by a lot of palliatives, which he said were still being worked out.
“We asked him about the plan to review the refineries, he said plans were on and that the removal would also allow entrepreneurs to come into the industry, which he said would help in generating reemployment for the youths.”
The source said the President told the PDP leaders that he considered the meeting strategic in order for them to know the workings of government.
He also said this would enable them to be able to defend the policies since the party produced him.
The source added that the President said he would meet with the leadership of the opposition political parties when he returned from Australia.
Oil subsidy removal is part of the programme and policy thrust of the PDP.
Under its Policy Thrust on Petroleum Resources, the party manifesto says “A PDP-led government’s objective for the sector is to optimise upstream and downstream oil sector for a better role in the economy by increasing the level of oil reserves, expand exploration activities in onshore/offshore frontiers and liberalise and deregulate the industry with increased local content.”
Meanwhile, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State on Friday said fuel subsidy was not beneficial to Nigerians and that state governors were working together with the Federal Government for the proposed removal.
“A lot of discussions have gone into it. As at today, state governors are working with the Federal Government on this,” he told State House correspondents in Abuja.
He said the state governors decided to back the position of the Federal Government on the planned removal of fuel subsidy because the subsidy was not beneficial to the masses.
He said that another indication that the subsidy was not good for the nation was when it was revealed in the National Assembly last week that the Federal Government had already overspent the sum earmarked for fuel subsidy in the 2011 budget. This, the governor, said was against the law.
He said rather than giving subsidy that would be beneficial to a clique, the money saved from the withdrawal could be used to develop infrastructure across the country.
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