Former House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara has clarified that President Bola Tinubu was not responsible for removing subsidies on petroleum products.
He explained that although Tinubu announced that “subsidy is gone,” the policy was already in place before he took office.
Dogara noted that the budget approved by the National Assembly before Tinubu’s election did not include provisions for subsidy payments.
Speaking on Channels TV on Friday, Dogara said that despite the current hardships faced by Nigerians due to the subsidy removal, it was necessary for the country’s progress.
He emphasised that the focus should now shift from merely discussing the nation’s challenges to finding solutions, stating, “The problem with this country is that people always want to talk about her problems and they want to leave Nigeria because of it as if these problems are not there in other climes. But nobody is talking about solutions, even among the elites. When you sit with them, everyone is talking about the problems and not solutions.”
Regarding the subsidy removal, Dogara stated, “In this case, there was no provision for it, and anybody who told you he (Tinubu) suspended it was just joking because how did he suspend payment that was not budgeted for in the first instance?”
“There was no provision for subsidy in that budget, and I am not aware of any amendment that took place to accommodate the payment of subsidy. The truth is that he (Tinubu) was not the one who removed the subsidy. But he did make that pronouncement,” he said.
Dogara further remarked, “In addressing this, we must accept whether we like it or not unless we are being disingenuous. Whether the President said the subsidy was gone or he was removing the subsidy, we all know that subsidy had been removed before he was elected. There was no provision for it in the budget, and you know the budget is backed by the constitution. If there’s no provision for it in the budget, then how do you pay for it?”
On May 29, 2023, during his inauguration in Abuja, Tinubu declared, “Subsidy is gone,” and stated that his administration would remove the subsidy on petroleum products, as the national budget from June 2023 made no provision for it.