Nigeria:Remove Fuel Subsidies- Former NNPC General Manager Tells Federal Government On Fuel Scarcity

By Joshua Samuel [caption id="attachment_102622" align="alignnone" width="678"] Babajide Soyode[/caption] Ex General Manager of Corporate Planning and Business Development at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Babajide Soyode, has persuaded the Federal Government to stop the fuel subsidy payment regime to end the consistent scarcity of the product. Babajide Soyode made this revelation on Tuesday in an AriseTV interview monitored by Pan African Visions. He spoke about the outrageous cost of diesel in Nigeria compared with the price in neighboring countries like Ghana. According to him, Nigerians are paying the highest cost of diesel in Africa. “We spend subsidies to maintain the elite of this country; that is all we are doing. Even the elites no longer get it, but some people are taking it to squander in Dubai. I am saying, remove subsidy today heavens will not come down. “All these things they are talking about are not true; diesel in Ghana is N549; do they have subsidies for diesel? Why are they paying N549, and we are paying N786? We are importing the product from the same market. I am not blaming IPMAN or NNPC if the government has screwed up the market by maintaining subsidies. You can quote me; the fuel scarcity situation will continue after December”, he stated. Nigerians continue to grapple with the attendant implications as fuel queues resurfaced in Abuja, Lagos, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, and other major cities.