Festus Osifo, TUC president.
The Federal Government has questions to answer with regard to the gains of subsidy removal, Festus Osifo, Trade Union Congress (TUC) president, has said.
Osifo made this ascertain while speaking on the matter during an interview on AriseTV on Wednesday, asking where the money saved since removing the subsidy is.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had announced the removal of petrol subsidy during his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023.
Following the speech, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) raised petrol price from N189 per litre to N568 per litre.
With NNPC spending N4.39 trillion ($9.7 billion) on a petrol subsidy in 2022, Tinubu said removing the subsidy on premium motor spirit (PMS) would reduce expenses and help the government to save more from revenue generated.
However, reacting to the development, Osifo said since the government announced that N1 trillion had been saved, there was no reason to continue borrowing money, adding that FG should simply deploy part of the funds on Nigerians.
Said Osifo: “The President and commander in chief on his own came and said the country has saved N1 trillion. The Federal government went everywhere to announce that if subsidy is removed, it’s going to save substantial money.
“And so, we don’t expect them to go everywhere and start borrowing money. They told us they are going to save money. So where is the money that you have saved and how have they deployed this money?”
Osifo’s comment came a day after TUC and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) announced that workers’ unions would embark on an indefinite strike on October 3, 2023.
He said the unions had exhausted their arsenals and had been left with no choice but to proceed on the definite strike next month.
