Pains Of Fuel Subsidy Removal: Obi Had No Different Plan From Tinubu’s- Cosmas Maduka

Amidst the attendant pains and controversy that have trailed the removal of fuel subsidy by the Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, respected automobile magnate Cosmas Maduka says some of opponents of the administration such as Peter Obi had no different plan on how to tackle the country’s energy problems.

Obi, the 2023 Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Maduka said would have removed the fuel subsidy if he had won the election, in which President Tinubu defeated him and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who came third and second in the election. Tinubu contested under the All Progressives Congress, APC banner and was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

By ending the decades of the multi- billion naira fuel subsidy regime in the country, the Tinubu administration inflicted serious hardship on Nigerians who are now struggling to survive the economic challenges imposed by the policy, critics of the administration said including Obi, who said he would have tackled the problem differently as President and Commander-in-Chief.

But in his reaction to fuel subsidy controversy, Maduka said Obi would have removed subsidy in his first day as Nigeria’s President.

Speaking in an interview on Mic On Podcast with Okinbaloye via YouTube at the weekend, the businessman insist that subsidy removal was an inevitable policy by whoever won the 2023 presidential election, insisting however that the removal did not leave Nigerians without serious pains.

“People have asked me, will Peter Obi have done anything different if he won the election? I said no. He would have removed subsidy from day one also,” he said.

Recall that ahead the 2023 presidential election, Obi had said that he will remove fuel subsidy from ‘day one’ as President describing the payment of billions of naira to marketers by the federal government as subsidy on petrol as corruption and organised crime.

Saying whatever is realized from the fuel subsidy savings will be used for funding critical sectors of the economy such as education, health and others the LP Presidential candidate asserted, “But I can assure you, it (fuel subsidy)  will go immediately. Subsidy – I’ve said it before – is organised crime and I will not allow it to stay a day longer.”