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As fuel crisis continues to worsen across Nigeria, International Human Rights Lawyer, and Executive Director of Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights, CASER, Frank Tietie, has said there is need for immediate removal of subsidy to enable the country finance its budget deficit without resorting to borrowing.
Tietie who has always advocated against fuel subsidy, called on the present administration and others who frustrated the efforts of former President Goodluck Jonathan to remove fuel subsidy, to apologise to him.
The lawyer who made the call on Tuesday in Abuja while speaking as a panelist at the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ Policy Dialogue on Fuel Subsidy Regime, said the issue of fuel subsidy removal is long overdue in Nigeria.
He charged media practitioners to move away from lamenting on the subsidy issue, to taking a firm stand that it should be removed immediately.
“Subsidy should be removed now. The heavens will not fall. I cannot understand why a country will be so wicked to itself and allow itself lose 700,000 barrels of crude oil daily,” he said. Tietie said rather than phased removal, subsidy funds should be channelled to other critical sectors like Agriculture and Transportation.
While condemning the continuous call of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC for fuel subsidy to be sustained, the lawyer called for proper investigation into crude oil theft.
In his openining remarks, Chairman of the Abuja Chapter of NUJ, Emmanuel Ogbeche, lamented the failure of the federal government to put the issue of fuel subsidy to bed.
The chairman who noted that there have been documents that claim fuel subsidy has been benefiting the masses, questioned why fuel scarcity has taken a recurrent status across the country.
“Imagine investing such monies into social infrastructures like; Education, Health, Water, Security, to mention a few. What will be the developmental impact in our country.
“The management of the fuel subsidy has been so poor and there is no clarity about it,” he lamented.
It would be recalled that the Jonathan administration had in 2012 announced removal of fuel Subsidy. The removal attempt, however, saw labour unions, students, civil servants staging nationwide protests.
The one-day dialogue meeting according to the NUJ, was to deliberate on issues surrounding the subsidy regime and profer lasting solutions to end the sufferings of Nigerians.