President of the Senate Godswill Akpabio has hailed the removal of subsidy on petrol, saying the country could not have survived if the multi-billion subsidy regime was allowed to continue.
Akapbio spoke as Nigerians woke up to another increase in the pump price of petrol on Tuesday barely a month after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said his government has ended subsidy payment on the product.
Nigrians are curently facing severe hardship due to the removal which has led to an exponential increase in the pump price of petrol to at least N650 per litre from barely N200 per litre two months ago.
In response to the hike , the prices of foods and other essential commodities have shot up, while the cost of transportation has been more than tripled, and beyond the reach of many Nigerian families . Most Nigerians are now trekking to work as the effects of the removal bite harder.
Labour unions in the country such as the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, and Trade Union Congress, TUC, has criticised the price jerk up, describing it as insensitive to the plight of Nigerians.
But speaking when Governor Abiodun Oyebanji paid him a visit in his office in Abuja on Tuesday, Akpabio said the removal saved the country from economic collapse.
According to him, plan is underway by the federal government to increase civil servants’ salary to cushion the effects of the removal of subsidy.
“Nigeria as a country would not have survived the next few years if the fuel subsidy had not been removed.
“Salaries and wages of workers would be reviewed in order to ensure that Nigerians have a living wage,” Akpabio said.
Meanwhile, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari said on Tuesday, during a visit to Aso Rock, Presidential Villa, Abuja that yesterday’s hike in petrol price was not as a result of shortage of the product, saying there is enough to last for over a month.
He said the price hike was as a result of market forces, adding also that some independent marketers have started importing petrol.
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