The guest column by Nasir Aminu on the back page on Friday’s Daily Trust of 03/12/2021 refers please: The policy of replacing fuel subsidy with a more expensive unproductive subsidy of dishing out N5,000 per month to unidentifiable ‘poor citizens’ is not only poorly conceived but is surely the fastest way for this administration to lose the next election because by early 2023, the government will suffer the backlash of this ill-conceived policy.
What baffles me is why PMB will not copy Abacha who used the funds saved from removal of subsidy in mid-1990s to set up the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). Even though the saving was much smaller, so much money was made available to the PTF that it was able to invest a lot in the development of infrastructure.
In fact if he had followed my advice of running the PTF like we ran Gidauniyar Jihar Katsina, PTF would still be waxing strong and surely have been richer than the FGN. Since he has totally forgotten about PTF, I now realise why he didn’t understand the concept I proposed to him then. To save Nigeria from this calamitous policy, someone in government should remind him of the PTF alternative. Since fuel price will be doubled, the saving accruing to the new PTF will be more than what the former PTF ever received. I would gladly make available the suggestion I made to him then to make the new PTF outlast any subsequent government.
Engr. S. I. Sodangi wrote via [email protected]
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