By Adejoke Adeleye,Ogun
Ogun governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun on Tuesday urged Nigerians to endure the hardship brought on then by fuel subsidy removal for the overall good of the nation.
Abiodun gave this advice after a private meeting with the former president Olusegun Obasanjo at his private residence in Abeokuta, the State capital.
Gov Abiodun refused to reveal while he visited Obasanjo.
Instead, he said he has come to see his father and a son can come to see his father anytime he wishes.
While speaking with newsmen on the removal of fuel subsidy, Abiodun lamented that Nigeria lost N4trillion annually to the subsidy regime.
He therefore insisted that there was no better time to remove the subsidy than now.
The governor assured Nigerians that government would put into better use savings from removal of fuel subsidy to revamp the economy of the country.
“We all know that the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration started with a bang. On 29th of May, he reeled out a few initiatives, one of the most laudable of those initiatives was his decision to remove subsidy on petroleum products.
“As controversial as that initiative has been, no one can deny the fact that it was a very welcome initiative. That was a subsidy that Nigeria could no longer afford, it was a subsidy that was not in the budget beyond June 2023.
“More importantly, it was costing Nigeria about N4trillion per annum, N4trillion that Nigeria did not have, that we have had to borrow, that could be better expended on other things that the common man can feel, so it was a very right decision.
“Of course, it was a decision that also came with a bit of pain, but like they say, there is no gain without some pain”, Abiodun said.
He urged Nigerians to endure the hardship of increase of fuel price, saying the benefits of the subsidy removal outweigh the pain.
The governor said his administration had rolled out a series of palliatives for civil servants, pensioners and the people of the state to cushion the effect of subsidy removal.
Part of palliatives included the approval for the payment of N10,000 cash for each public servants and pensioners in the state.
The government also approved payment of hazard allowance for all health and medical personnel in the State, adding that the implementation of the palliative would take effect from July.
Speaking on the palliatives, Abiodun said, “What you saw us announced for implementation in Ogun state yesterday (Monday) are part of the initiatives that the Federal government has designed for implementation at the various state levels.
“What we have just done is to immediately begin that implementation because as soon the President announced deregulation we had sat down with members of our labour unions – TUC, NLC and the JNC to discuss the different options that will be acceptable for all of us. So that allowed us to be able to fast track our own policies.
“We believe that these initiatives should immediately ameliorate the pain our people are feeling and I’m sure that you will see that other state governments are doing the same.”
