Ex-Lawmaker Advises NASS On Subsidy Removal

A former member of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Sa’idu Gumburawa,  has urged the National Assembly members to resist the Federal Government attempt to remove the subsidy on petroleum, but Sen Jibril Aminu has, however, thrown his weight behind the removal.

Gumburawa told our correspondent in Gumburawa, near Sokoto that “they should do what the majority of Nigerians want as their elected representatives.

“The removal of the subsidy will worsen the present socio-economic predicament of Nigerians.

The removal of the subsidy is also capable of leading to the increment in transport fares, which will inevitably have a multiplier effect on the prices of goods and services all over the nation,’’ he said.

Gumburawa, who represented Kware /Wamakko Federal Constituency between 2007 to 2011 and former Board member of NAN, urged the NASS to do whatever they could to stop the move.

On the new minimum wage, the former legislator said that all the three tiers of government had the wherewithal to implement it.

“As far as I am concerned N18,000 is a far cry considering the current endemic super inflation but let them even implement it to the letter and urgently to alleviate the suffering of the workers,’’ he said.

Gumburawa, who also decried the rising cases of insecurity in the country, urged the various security agencies to be braced and more diligent in the discharge of their duties.

Meanwhile, former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Senator Jibril Aminu, in an interview, threw his weight behind President Goodluck Jonathan’s move to remove the contentious fuel subsidy.

He said only Nigeria’s neighbours enjoyed the more than N1 trillion being spent annually by the government in executing the policy.

Aminu, also a former Minister of Education, said the country could not sustain the huge expenditure for too long as very few Nigerians enjoyed the subsidy while the masses of neighbouring countries fed fat on the policy.