More interest groups have continued to voice condemnation to the way and manner the current government is running the fuel subsidy regime.
Latest commentator on the issue is the the Director of Research and Advocacy, at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Vincent Nwani, who has advised for the end and transfer of the allocations to infrastructure development.
Explaining the position of LCCI at a debate, organized by The Liberal Forum (TLF) which is also known as the Peter Bauer Foundation, in Lagos on the matter, he argued that “the fuel subsidy regime of the Federal Government has remained a rent and a drain on the nation’s economy”.
According to him, “The continuous funding of fuel subsidy over capital projects would continue to leave a huge hole in the nation’s purse, due to the issues of transparency around it, the discouragement of the private sector participation in the oil and gas sector and the huge sums being spent to maintain the subsidy programme”.
Nwani made it clear that it has become pertinent for government to eradicate the subsidy on fuel, because it only benefits the rich and leaves the poor in abject poverty.
He decried that whooping N1.3 trillion spent by the Federal Government in 2018 on subsidising the cost of fuel, which is well over 50 per cent of the monies allocated to capital projects, can do much in lifting the failed quality of education.
