Governors of the states of the federation have explained that they were considering taking over the payment of fuel subsidy from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, because the amount said to be paid is outrageous.
NNPC is said to be paying N800 billion as fuel subsidy.
The Chairman of Governors’ Forum, Abdulazeez Yari of Zamfara State, gave the explanation while speaking with State House correspondents in Abuja.
He said the exact position of the governors would be made known next month whether the National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo would allow NNPC to continue to handle the issue of subsidy or make the governors take over.
He explained that the subsidy, if taken over by the states, would be based on the consumption by the states.
Read also: N5bn fraud: Akingbola has case to answer – Supreme Court
His words: “Our problem is the volume, the quantity of consumption which is not acceptable.
“Working with the governors so many decisions were taken, but by next month, we are going to adopt that position either for the governors to take responsibility for the subsidy in their states based on the consumption or we look at other ways.
“For instance, if you say we paid N800 billion subsidy, you will ask who are we paying the subsidy to? And if you look at infrastructure development and capital programme of the Federal Government, it is about N1.1 trillion, almost 70 per cent of what you are spending on developing the economy.
“If there is no infrastructure development then you cannot talk about development of the economy. N800 billion is a huge amount that we must look at, who is benefiting from it.
“So, we are coming up with a strategy, we are going to meet in the month of May and June. By next meeting, we will definitely come up with a position of the government at both level of volume of what is being brought into the country and what the state and Federal Government collaborate to check.’’
