Isa Yuguda Alleges Nigeria Still Paying Fuel Subsidy

Despite the continued denial by the federal government that it was no longer subsidising petroleum subsidy, a former Governor of Bauchi State, Isa Yuguda , yesterday alleged that the federal government still pays subsidy on petroleum products.

Yuguda stated this in an interview on a television programme monitored in Abuja by THISDAY.

President Bola Tinubu, had in his inaugural speech, announced that “The fuel subsidy is gone.”

The President added that the 2023 Budget made no provision for fuel subsidy and more so, subsidy payment was no longer justifiable.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in one of its reports last month also advised Nigeria to completely phase out the costly fuel and electricity subsidies as part of measures to address its economic challenges.

However, speaking on the issue of subsidy, Yuguda said: “If the IMF says we are paying subsidy then we are. But the subsidy that was removed was the one that was going into private pockets and I decoupled that subsidy that ordinarily shouldn't have been paid.

“If it should have been paid, it should be paid into the treasury of the country and today, that revenue increase that we see is reflected in the removal of the monies going into pockets of private individuals, is what is going into the treasury of the country.

"You have that subsidy being paid on petrol products that are pumped through pipelines and in many instances they are pumped through imaginary pipelines, where the pipelines don't exist.

“So, we all pay subsidy, but that was what the President removed, that is why most states are getting twice or thrice of their allocation.”

On the economic hardship in the country, the former governor said the average Nigerian would not understand challenges the president has to face in resolving the economic situation.

Yuguda, noted that members of the president's cabinet needed to help in sensitising the masses on how government policies would change the nation.

He added, “I will expect the cabinet of Mr. President to go down the strata of our society and explain to the people that this is the situation that we have found ourselves in.

“If we didn't have our central bank messing us up and the economy that has been mismanaged in the past, it wouldn't be the way it is today.”