Kano State government yesterday rose in defence of the Federal Government over the removal of fuel subsidy leading to hike in the price of petrol from N65 per litre to N144 per litre, saying leaving the subsidy is akin to subsidizing the economies of the neighboring African countries. �
Making Kano government?s position on the subsidy removal known in an interactive session with newsmen in Kano yesterday, Deputy Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje said there is nothing Kano government can do over the development other than to accept it since it is a national issue.�
The deputy governor, who said the prices of petrol in the neighbouring African countries of Cameroun, Chad and Niger Republic (all oil producing countries) are much higher than that of Nigeria, also said the increase in the petrol price on the common man in Nigeria is marginal.
Ganduje, who chaired the session soon after a meeting he had with Governor Rabi?u Musa Kwankwaso at Kano Government House on the issue, said if the subsidy was not removed, Nigeria?s economy could soon collapse given the huge sum of money being wasted in the name of subsidy.
?The fuel subsidy is going into trillion every year; before it was in billions. And the hard fact is that leaving the subsidy is like the Federal Government subsidizing the economies of our neighbouring African countries?, he said.
The deputy governor said from his understanding, the subsidy removal is only on petrol as it does not affect other petroleum products such as diesel, kerosene and aviation fuel, saying all hands should be on deck to check the likely inflation that may arise from the fuel hike.
He said there is no justification whatsoever for heavy duty vehicles using diesel or commercial domestic planes using aviation fuel to increase fares as the subsidy removal does not in any way affect them.
?All the vehicles that convey goods from the ports to all parts of the country use diesel; all the heavy duty generators being used in factories to supply electricity do not use petrol but diesel; even the grinding machines that we use in the rural areas are not affected too because they use diesel; the same thing with luxury buses?, he said.
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