Fuel subsidy: Prioritise palliatives, Clark urges Tinubu

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Fuel subsidy: Prioritise palliatives, Clark urges Tinubu

ABUJA—Elder statesman and South-South leader, Chief Edwin Clark, has urged President Bola Tinubu to prioritise the provision of palliatives to mitigate challenges arising from fuel subsidy removal.

Clark made the call in an interview with NAN, yesterday, in Abuja. Clark who commended the president on the removal of subsidy said the government had done the right thing.

He said: “They have done the right thing. After all, all the candidates before the 2023 general election had advocated and promised to remove fuel subsidy.

“Everybody regarded it as a scam, it does not exist. Where are these faceless people we are paying the oil subsidy to, how has it benefited the ordinary man in Nigeria?

“Remember in January 2012, the Jonathan-led administration attempted to remove it, but the very people and leaders who opposed it at that time have now turned round to say yes it must go.”

He added that removing the fuel subsidy was a very bold step taken by President Tinubu.

“Some people believe that since Tinubu was talking about subsidy removal during his campaign and also in his manifesto, he should have strategised how to provide the palliative to cushion the effect,” he said.

Clark explained that government workers understood that fuel subsidy had never been in their favour, adding that spending trillions of naira on fuel subsidy is unacceptable.

He noted that, if the subsidy was spent on the country’s transportation, education and health sectors, “we will have a better Nigeria. Now that a committee has been set up, where all parties will be involved, they should work it out.”