Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate, has promised to phase out fuel subsidy if elected as president.
In his manifesto circulated on Friday, Tinubu said aside from phasing out fuel subsidy, he would accelerate full implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act, implement additional favourable policies to attract investment in Deepwater assets within 6 months.
“We shall phase out the fuel subsidy yet maintain the underlying social contract between government and the people.
We do this by dedicating the money that would have been used on the subsidy to fund targeted infrastructural, agricultural and social welfare programs ranging from road construction to boreholes, public transportation subsidies, and education and healthcare funding programs.
In this way, the funds are more directly and better utilised to address urgent social and economic needs.
“Our planned approach will not only mitigate the price effects of deregulation but will also result in the significant expansion of public infrastructure and improvement of public well-being. Subsidy removal and deregulation are, however, only part of the solution.
To further increase our refining capacity, we shall focus on the rehabilitation of the nation’s refineries and shall consider, as a model, the joint venture partnership arrangements implemented by other leading oil-producing states and global petrochemical firms.
“We will hasten the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act and implement favourable policies to stimulate investment in the deep-water assets such as encouraging negotiations regarding signature bonus payment and/or deferral of the payment post development, royalty reliefs amongst others,” he said.
President Muhammadu Buhari has not heeded to calls by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and other leading economists to remove fuel subsidy.
