PRESIDENT BUHARI SETS TO REMOVE FUEL SUBSIDY

After the announcement of the partial removal of petrol subsidy by former president Goodluck Jonathan led administration on Sunday, January 1, 2012, on Monday, January 2, 2012, a socio-political protest movement tagged: Occupy Nigeria accompanied the Federal Government announcement. The protests took place across the country, including cities like; Kano, Ojota (part of metropolitan Lagos), Abuja, and at the Nigerian High Commission in London. Nigerians are again expected to be given another round of shock by the new administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

President Buhari to remove oil subsidy, NLC tells lawmakers to slash N120b vote or face revolt, APC, governors wade in NASS leadership crisis, Saraki, Lawan groups’ rift deepens as well as new book endorsing Buhari’s bid to restructure ministries makes the front pages of the national dailies for Monday, June 22, 2015.

VANGUARD reports that President Muhammadu Buhari, on Sunday, June 21, plans to totally remove oil subsidy and use the proceeds for the provision of free and compulsory primary/secondary education across the country. This was made known by a source among the transition committee set up by Buhari to work out a blueprint for his administration. The source said the administration is also said to be working on unbundling the NNPC, to make it more efficient in the production and delivery of products to Nigerians.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, which said these proposals form part of the strong recommendations made by the transition committee, also revealed that members of organised labour in the country were consulted by the committee and they made presentations on what should be done over the matter. The source said: “Labour is part of the decision; they have accepted the proposal of fuel subsidy removal.”
The source further revealed that the committee also recommended the unbundling of NNPC to reposition the agency to serve the needs of Nigerians better. He said all refineries in Nigeria are to be made to work at maximum capacity by the federal government to be able to deliver adequate products to the consumers. He added that the FG was set to block all channels of fund leakages in the NNPC, adding that the era of allocating more crude than the refinery in Nigeria was over, as it was discovered that the policy encouraged corruption and diversion of funds.
Despite reports that labour accepted the proposal for the fuel subsidy removal as recommended by the transition committee raised by Mr. President, THE NATION reports that the Joe Ajaero-led Nigeria Labour Congress faction, on Sunday, June 21, insisted that federal lawmakers must further cut their N120 billion budget in line with the recent economic realities. The NLC said the reduction of the National Assembly’s budget from N150 billion to N120 billion is too small and not far reaching enough. The body threatened a mass revolt should the lawmakers and the executive fail to cut down their recurrent expenses.
Speaking in Kaduna State, the faction’s Deputy President, Comrade Issa Aremu, who is also the General Secretary of the Textile Workers Union, advised lawmakers to appreciate the mood of the nation for leadership sacrifices, resource allocation for national development and common good as opposed to self-help. Responding to their demand, a House of Representatives member, Mohammed Abdulkadir, explained that the N120 billion is not all for salaries.
The Labour noted that nations prosper when their leaders are willing to sacrifice; while nations fail when leaders engage in selfish self-help agenda. It asked why 109 senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives should get N120 billion in a year, an amount the body said is twice the 2015 budget of Ekiti State (N80.774 billion), a state with the population of 2,384,212 people.
The factional NLC group also asked how reasonable it is for less than 500 national legislators to receive N120 billion annually when Osun State with a population of 3,423,535 people and unfunded 2015 Appropriation Bill of N201 billion is yet to pay salaries for seven months. It said Benue State, which has as many as 4,219,244 people, budgeted N98.54 billion; Zamfara with 3,259,846 citizens, budgeted N92.80 billion while Ebonyi State, budgeted N80.02 billion for 2,173,501 people.
The NLC said the budgets of these three states are half of the budget of the National Assembly and questioned how equitable is that? The labour advised the lawmakers to take the advantage of the current goodwill of Nigerians in making amend because failure to do so will spark mass revolt of the people. It advocated that NASS budget should be reversed to 2003 budget of N50 billion, which will certainly cut the existing, budget of the assembly by more than 50 per cent.
Meanwhile, following the internal tussle in the National Assembly, the All Progressive Congress National Working Committee and governors on the platform of the party have decided to meet with warring factions in the Senate and the House of Representatives ahead of today’s resumption. DAILY SUN reports that the lawmakers are to meet with the members of Unity Forum and Like Minds Senators, after which they would meet with the governors at a location in Abuja. The meeting is to discuss the power-sharing formula in both chambers.
In the Senate, The Like Minds, a group of Senators loyal to Senate President Bukola Saraki, rejected moves to give the remaining four principal officers positions to the Senate Unity Forum, a support group for Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan. The Unity Forum is insisting that its members must fill the four vacant positions. The group is proposing Lawan as the Majority Leader with Senator George Akume as his deputy. Senator Olusola Adeyeye has been penciled down for the Chief Whip position with Senator Abu Ibrahim from Katsina state as his deputy.
The same scenario also prevails in the House of Representatives, because the remaining leadership positions are: Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Leader, Chief Whip, Deputy Chief Whip. It was gathered on Sunday, June 21, that invitation letters have been sent to Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara. All members of the APC caucuses in the Senate and the House of Representatives are expected at the meeting.
Despite the above reported move by the NWC and APC governors to halt the leadership tussle in the National Assembly, THE PUNCH reports that the crisis on Sunday, June 21, took a new twist with the Senator Ahmad Lawan group in the Senate accusing the Bukola Saraki group of plotting to make President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration fail. Spokesman for the pro – Lawan group, Senator Kabiru Marafa, in an interview with The Punch correspondent in Abuja, said the election of a Peoples Democratic Party senator as deputy senate president is obviously a grand conspiracy to sabotage Buhari’s government.
Marafa said no opposition senator made any attempt to seek election into the majority position when the PDP had the majority in the senate in 2011. He then wondered why should somebody do it now and questioned if it was because Muhammadu Buhari, who is from the North is the President?
Lawan loyalists in the Senate, under the Senate Unity Forum, said the election of Ike Ekweremadu was a grand conspiracy to sabotage Buhari’s administration through the legislature. But, a member of the Like Minds Senators, which is pro-Saraki, Rafiu Ibrahim, on Sunday, denied allegations of conspiracy against the government of President Buhari with the election of Ekweremadu. He said pro- Saraki group campaigned across the party lines because some APC senators already had their candidate.
Meanwhile, there were speculations on Sunday that President Buhari was angry with Saraki over Ekweremadu’s emergence as his deputy. It was gathered that Buhari has not spoken with Saraki since the incident happened on June 9 and he had snubbed all attempts to contact him. It is also speculated that the senate president also had issues with the Vice – President, Yemi Osinbajo, for using a derogatory language on him.
It would be recalled that President Buhari, during his election campaign promised to cut the cost of government, this promise will soon be delivered as THE GUARDIAN reports that a new book on governance reform to be unveiled on Thursday, June 25, in Abuja, has recommended only 18 ministries/ministers of state.
There have been reports that the new structure of government to be announced shortly may have only 19 ministries. It was earlier reported that the President was considering only 19 ministries from the current 31. It was said then that there might be more ministers of state in Buhari’s Federal Executive Council.
Therefore, the book titled: Restoring Good Governance In Nigeria: The Civil Service Pathway, written ahead of the inauguration of a new government, by Dr. Goke Adegoroye, coincidentally deals exhaustively with a strategic structure of the federal government and ministerial portfolio that should adopted by any serious government to cut down cost to mitigate the recent economic realities in the country.