THE presidency said on Tuesday that all the 36 state governors and
other key stakeholders in the country had agreed with the Federal
Government to withdraw oil subsidy.
The governors are of six political parties, made up of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All
Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP),
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and Labour Party (LP).
They had some months ago declared that they would not implement the
new minimum wage of N18,000 unless fuel subsidy was withdrawn.
The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Dr
Reuben Abati, confirmed to the Nigerian Tribune in Abuja, on Tuesday,
that Jonathan was carrying out consultations with a wide spectrum of
stakeholders in the country, as part of efforts to ensure the passage of
the initiative.
“You know that one major constituency that has been carried on board
is the governors. The money that the governors are fighting about is the
money for subsidy.
“They are saying nobody should deduct anything from their allocation
to go and subsidise petroleum products, which means the governors were
the first to even push the bill and many of these governors, if you have
been monitoring their commentaries, you will see that almost all the
governors have spoken up in support,” he said.
According to him, “the truth of the matter is that, since the fuel
subsidy bill was submitted as part of that medium term framework, there
has been a series of meetings. There has been series of it.”
Abati disclosed further that Jonathan did not want it to appear that
the removal of fuel subsidy issue was a government policy which must be
accepted by the people, saying that “it is not just that government
wants to ram deregulation down the throat of people.”
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