By Haruna Salami
As controversy over fuel subsidy removal rages on, culminating in long queues at petrol stations, Senator Oyelola Ashiru (Kwara South), has clarified that it was the immediate past President Muhammdu Buhari that removed the fuel subsidy and not the just inaugurated President Bola Tinubu.
Senator Ashiru made the clarification in Abuja Tuesday while fielding questions from journalists on the insinuation that the new President removed subsidy on Petroleum, leading to the sudden return of queues at filling stations across the country.
He spoke shortly after a public hearing on Public Procurement Act, which his Committee on Establishment organised at the National Assembly Complex.
He noted that President Tinubu was being honest with the pending subsidy removal, by reiterating that the government had concluded plans to take the contentious subsidy out of the nation’s annual budget.
“Tinubu is just been honest with pending subsidy removal. However, the reality of it is that the Federal Government can not sustain the subsidy on petroleum in our economy.
We are paying far less than what other countries are paying for a litre of petrol.
“The beauty of it is that the money we are spending to subsidize the product is much more than we are spending on infrastructure. So, we have to ask ourselves and live the life we want to live and pay for it”.
Commenting on the bill which went through a public hearing, he said: “We are working on Public Procurement because it is an important process in government expenditures.
“It is an important process in the delivery of goods by the government and it is very important too if we are very serious about checking corruption.
“It is important too if we are thinking of achieving government goals. That is why we have to continuously tinker with the procurement Bill”.
He noted that they were trying to make it “all-inclusive, more functional and more productive to all Nigerians. The new government has to continuously rejig our process to make procurement more vibrant, more meaningful and safer.
“We are talking to consultants, captain of industry and professionals that are working on how to operate the Procurement Act. We need to take them along.”
