*Says Despite Claims Of Subsidy Removal, FG Spent Trillions Of Naira

*Drop Non-Performing Appointees

THE immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, said the President Bola Tinubu administration has been subsidising petrol, known as Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), since its inception in May last year, despite its mouthed subsidy removal. 

    This development, he added, has so far cost the present administration trillions of naira since inception, noting that but for the subsidy payments, the price of petrol per litre would have been much higher than that of diesel, which is currently sold above N1,000 per litre, depending on the location, compared to PMS at N650 to N750 per litre.

    Speaking on Monday, April 15, in Maiduguri, Borno State, at the occasion of a capacity building workshop at the International Conference Centre (ICC), el-Rufai said: “A good leader must be decisive and have the ability to make good decisions, trustworthy, empower others, irrespective of political, religious or ethnic considerations, have clear communication skills and resilient in all ramifications.

    “Though it is too early to judge the present administration, it is just been there for only nine months, and you know leadership is work in progress. You start a policy because you are absolutely sure it is the right policy, but in the course of implementation, if you see bottlenecks, you modify, because the key word in leadership, in my view, is not ideology or anything, it is pragmatism. 

    “You should always be pragmatic. You are not God, only God is perfect, so as a good leader, when you make a policy and you started implementing, and it doesn’t seem to work well, you should have the humility to stand back and said, this is not working.

    “For example, if you appoint a person to a position and he is not performing to expectation, you should have the humility to say look, I need a better person to do the job perfectly. Leadership is a continuous thing and in a term of four years, you can’t assess a government of nine months.

“But as I also said earlier during my presentation, the removal of fuel subsidy by the present administration is another good policy by Tinubu. I have always supported withdrawal of fuel subsidy.

“But as you can see, in the course of implementation, government has now realised that the subsidy has to be back, because right now, we are paying a lot of money amounting to trillions of naira for subsidy, even more than before, because the impact has been seen and the packages of support that will reduce the impact have not been effective in reducing the impact, and so, the federal government has to backpedal by subsidising petrol. Many people don’t know this.” 

   According to the former minister: “If they want to know whether there is fuel subsidy or not, they should compare the prices of petrol and diesel per litre. This is because, under normal circumstances, petrol is supposed to be more expensive than diesel. As it is, diesel is above N1000, while petrol stood at about N600 per litre. So, we are still subsidising for fuel in Nigeria.”

   He called for prayers and support from the citizens for the administration in its quest to do what is right and turn around things and “for God to give them the humility to reverse themselves when necessary and do the right thing. That’s how society progresses.”