Shehu Sani, the Senator representing Kaduna Central has reacted to rising reports on plans by the Federal Government to remove fuel subsidy in Nigeria.
The Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, had on April 12 called on the Federal Government to remove fuel subsidy because of low revenue mobilisation that existed in terms of tax to Gross Domestic Product.
But the federal government on Sunday said there was no immediate plan to remove fuel subsidy, contrary to speculations that have led to the emergence of fuel queues in some parts of the country.
Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, speaking at the press briefing marking the end of the 2019 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, IMF, in Washington DC, USA, Sunday, gave conditions for fuel subsidy removal.
The conditions include: provision of alternative cushioning measures mutually agreed between stakeholders to protect the economically vulnerable members of the population.
She, however, said the Federal Government was yet to arrive at such measures.
Speaking on the development, Sani on his Twitter page compared the debate on fuel subsidy removal to that of ‘A cat with nine lives.’
The Kaduna lawmaker wrote: “Subsidy has become a cat with nine lives; it survived the age of the locusts and surviving that of the worms.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has cautioned the Federal Government against implementing the recommendation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the removal of subsidy on petroleum products in the country.
Mr. Ayuba Wabba, NLC President on Saturday in Abuja said that the continued devaluation of the Nigerian currency had created the impression of the existence of subsidy.
He added that as long as the value of the Naira was left to market forces, the issue of subsidy would continue in the country.
Also Workers in the oil and gas sector on Sunday advised President Muhammadu Buhari to shun any counsel that would destabilise or cause chaos in the economy.
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) said that the IMF advice on how to recover Nigerian economy was worrisome as it had become counter productive.
