President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olumide Akpata, on Monday, said that the federal government’s decision to suspend fuel subsidy removal was linked to the 2023 general elections.
Fidelis Chidi Blog reports that the federal government said there won’t be any removal of fuel subsidy due to perceived difficulties associated with it.
Minister of Finance, Hajia Zainab Ahmed, said the federal government was initially looking at the removal of fuel subsidy from July this year, after making adequate provisions in the 2022 budget to cushion the effect.
Speaking on Channels Television on Monday, Akpata said the decision to postpone the planned subsidy removal is a temporary solution due to the 2023 elections.
According to him, not suspending fuel subsidy removal would have been suicidal because election is just around the corner.
“The subsidy issue is a hot potato for any government, particularly, in this part of the world. I would have loved to think that the decision to suspend fuel subsidy removal is because the government cares so much about the people, and that it is a government that is listening to the cries of the people, because indeed, as the minister of finance mentioned, it would be really tough if subsidy removal is implemented at this time with all of the other supervening circumstances.
“However, something tells me that this has more to do with what is in the offing, an election is coming up.”
“Those kinds of hard decisions I don’t think are the kind of decisions you want to take going into an election. Those are my thoughts. I may be wrong.
“I’m persuaded that this is just a temporary solution pending when the political juggernauts come back from the field,” he added.
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