A former member House of Representatives, Bamidele Faparusi has advocated the introduction of gas subsidy as panacea to the adverse effects of fuel Subsidy removal currently hitting hard on Nigerians.
He advised the Federal government not to embark on the proposed N8,000 palliatives to 12 million households in order not to waste the nation’s resources, added that nothing meaningful would be achieved through such policy.
Faparusi stated that Introduction of subsidy on gas would be a better solution to alleviate the suffering of the masses and develop Nigerians’ local capacity.
The former federal lawmaker stated this in a press statement on Monday in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital .
He however commended president Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his rear courage to implement the subsidy removal on petroleum product.
” Leadership is about the ability to take difficult decisions, and removal of subsidy on petroleum products is one of such decisions”
He noted that the only way government can cushion the current harsh effects of fuel subsidy removal is to divert part of the subsidy on gas so that Nigerians can adopt gas as alternative. “After all, smuggling that bastardized the previous subsidy regime on fuel will be near impossible with Gas”.
He said the step will reduce demand on petroleum products and create new employment and business opportunities for Nigerians, and will also serve as palliatives to everybody both rich and poor.
Faparusi, who was the former Coordinator, Contact and Mobilization Committee, Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Committee in the 2023 presidential election in Ekiti remarked that no number of buses purchased by government can solve the transportation problem brought about by the subsidy removal, stressed that” the government must accelerate the adoption of Gas as the alternative to fuel our vehicles and re-energize the economy.
” As you can notice, we now have very few vehicles on our roads, that means people productivity has dropped and that will affect the economic output of the country in the medium term. As a government we must mitigate this by exploring an alternative means of fuelling the economy through the introduction of subsidy on Gas for a period of 5years to allow for local adoption of the resource.
“In Europe, they use gas for virtually everything, and we have accountant of gas resource everywhere in Nigeria. So, government should upgrade gas infrastructure through public private partnerships and introduce subsidy to bridge the viability gap. This to me is the immediate solution to the current hardship. This policy should be time bound for say five to ten years for people to adopt it. Within that period, adoption of gas by Nigerian would have entrenched.
“If people can afford to convert their vehicles to run on gas and the technology is available, this will create more employment opportunities and reduce high cost of living. As it stands today, not only the poor, the rich also cry. This will relief masses more than sharing N8,000.”