The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi has reiterated his position that the management of the fuel subsidy regime in Nigeria had become an “organised crime” that permits the stealing of the country’s resources.
Obi was speaking to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday on the sidelines of the ongoing hearing of his petitions challenging the February 25 presidential election at the Presidential Election Petitions Court.
He stressed his determination to remove fuel subsidies and introduce a new open and transparent system that carries the people along.
He said he had shown consistently since serving in former President Goodluck Jonathan’s economic management team, by using empirical data, that the Premium Motor Spirit PMS purportedly consumed by Nigerians was far more than what is supposed to be when compared to other countries like Pakistan.
On the conditions precedent to the removal of the subsidy, Obi said that he had enumerated them in his manifesto while campaigning for the office of the president.
He said, “Throughout my campaigns, go and check my manifesto, I had maintained this about its removal.
“If you have a toothache and you go to a dentist, there is a difference between removing your tooth by applying anesthesia, which will ameliorate your pains, and by just pulling it out.
“The difference is that I believe it should be removed with conditions, and that conditions have to be applied.”
Obi believes that “If I was involved, I had to show in empirical, statistical data how much we are going to save, where we are going to apply it and the gains for the people.”
He added that “Just like I said throughout my campaigns, that I am going to govern the people by being open, showing them empirical, verifiable facts on how the country can be better – that is what I would have done.
“There are things you need to do. When Jonathan was about to remove it that was when they came up with SURE-P as part of the conditions.
“The reason Nigerians are agitating is that when people say let’s go and suffer, let’s go and sacrifice, they don’t see the effects of the sacrifice, and to do it in an organised manner where people can see in a verifiable plan.
“I did a lot of similar things when I was a governor in Anambra State stopping this to do this, and each one I showed the people in a verifiable manner where we are going land.
“Governance shouldn’t be supply-driven, it should be demand-driven; you govern with the people. Let the people know what you are doing and explain it to them in clear terms and they will believe you.” Obi explained.
Dominica Nwabufo
