Former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir Ahmed el-Rufa’i said the federal government is now paying more than before.
Fielding question from newsmen in Maiduguri , Borno State capital, yesterday, el-Rufa’i said, “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 realised 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 now back subsidising petrol”.
He further said, “Many people don’t know that fuel subsidy is back; but, if they want to know whether we are subsidising 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 litre.
“So, we are still subsidising 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 stated.
