2023: Group backs Tinubu’s plan to remove fuel subsidy if elected

A citizens-led anti-sabotage organisation under the aegis of The Natives has commended the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu, for his public declaration that he will remove fuel subsidy if elected as president in the 2023 general elections.

The group promised to stand by Tinubu to carry out the plan and also hold him accountable to ensure he urgently fulfil the promise if elected as President.

The APC presidential candidate, while speaking at a Business Luncheon with business owners titled “Business Forward” on Thursday at the Wings, Victoria Island, Lagos, had promised to remove fuel subsidy if elected no matter the length of protest by Nigerian workers.

Tinubu said: “How can we be subsidising fuel consumption of Cameroon, of Niger, of Benin Republic. No matter how long you protest, we are going to remove subsidy,” he said emphatically.

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But responding to the promise after an assessment parley with its regional commissioners known as the G-43, National Leader and President General of The Natives, Hon Smart Edwards, commended the APC candidate for what he described as “a courageous statement to the oil cartels.”

In a statement released to newsmen in Abuja, the group which has members across all the 774 local government areas in the country, lamented that Nigeria is losing over five trillion Naira to a few cartels in the name of subsidy every year.

According to Edwards, the removal of fuel subsidies is a difficult decision every government wants to make over the years, “however some cartels make it look like the Nation will not be at rest if the subsidy is removed, but that’s a big fat lie, Nigeria cannot continue to subsidise a cartel.

“How can we continue to condole the eating up of our national treasury in the name of subsidy, trillions of Naira spent every year to subsidise what exactly?

“Our message to the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is that if he wins the forthcoming election and anytime is ready as a President, we will stand with him, it is a bold statement he must keep and if he is elected we will hold him accountable for this.”