NGO Backs Removal Of Fuel Subsidy

The Nigerian Youth Leadership Advocacy Group (NYLAG), an advisory and non- governmental group, has said the planned removal of fuel subsidy would be a blessing for Nigeria.

Our Correspondent  reports that President Goodluck Jonathan, in a letter conveying his administration’s Medium Term Expenditure Framework to the National Assembly, conveyed the intention of his government to begin the removal of fuel subsidy in 2012.

The president said the removal of the subsidy would free up about N1.2 trillion in savings, part of which could be deployed into providing safety nets for the nation’s poor, to ameliorate the effects of the subsidy removal.

In a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Mr Onyekachi Eze, the NYLAG stated that it fully supported the removal of the fuel subsidy.

The group, however, urged the Federal Government to ensure that it channelled savings into the repair of the refineries and improve on the nation’s epileptic power supply.

“Government should also ensure that all stakeholders and indeed Nigerians will be informed quarterly on how the subsidy is being managed.

“Our sole dependant on crude oil as a nation can only make us more impoverish rather than being rich,’’ the group stated.

According to NYLAG, until the Nigerian government starts taking other sectors of the economy very seriously, the nation may never achieve its collective national dreams.

“Nigeria was known as one of the largest exporters of agriculture in the 1960s, but today most Nigerians are complaining of hunger while many have died of starvation.

“The nation’s leadership must resolve to explore other avenues of creating wealth for the nation,’’ the group said.