FG now paying more for fuel subsidy, but many Nigerians don’t know, says El-Rufai

Former governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, says fuel subsidy is back, but many Nigerians do not know this.

Fielding question from newsmen in Maiduguri , Borno State capital, on Monday, El-Rufai said the federal government is now paying more than before.

He observed that the packages of support that would reduce the impact of fuel subsidy were not effective, hence reversal of the policy.

In his inaugural speech, President Bola Tinubu had announced the removal of fuel subsidy, saying its payment was no longer justifiable.

But El-Rufai, who said he was in support of the policy, said the government had to make necessary adjustments.

“Fuel subsidy is another policy that has been implemented by the president, it’s the right policy. I always supported withdrawing fuel subsidy.”

“But, in the course of implementation as you can see the government has now realized that the subsidy has to be back because right now, we are paying a lot of money for subsidy even more than before.

“This is because the impact has been seen and the packages of support that would reduce the impact have not been so effective in reducing the impact, so the federal government is back now subsidising Petrol.”

He said many people don’t know that fuel subsidy is back, “but, if they want to know whether we are subsidizing or not, they should compare the price of petrol and diesel because petrol should be more expensive than diesel but diesel is priced above a thousand naira while petrol is at N600 per liter.

“So, we are still subsidizing Petrol because the government has realised that they way it implemented the fuel subsidy initially required some adjustments. That’s what I keep saying about policy and policy pragmatism,” he said.

El-Rufai had earlier presented a paper titled: “Leadership and Public Policy: Navigating Challenges and Lessons”, at the Capacity-building workshop for Senior Government Officials of Borno State.