ACN rejects petroleum subsidy removal

The Action Congressof Nigeria (ACN)has rejected the plan by the Federal Government to remove petroleum subsidy, calling the plan the handiwork of those propelled by the philosophy of the 'Washington Consensus' of rolling back the frontiers of the state.In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also condemned the reduction of the subsidy removal debate to a purely fiscal issue, without considering the responsibility of the government to improve the lives of the people through prudent management of state resources.'Primarily, the basic objective of any fiscal policy is to improve the living conditions of the people through poverty reduction and the provision of welfare services. The removal of subsidy must therefore go beyond the cheap argument of improving the solvency of the government.'To reduce the responsibility of the government to its citizens to naira and kobo tokenism is tantamount to abdicating responsibility, and this has far reaching consequences not only on the sustainability of our democracy but the continued existence of the nation as a unified entity,' it said.ACN said government's argument that the subsidy benefits some members of a faceless cartel would begin to have meaning only if and when government named the beneficiaries and told Nigerians why they could not be stopped from fleecing the state.The party also said the only reason the issue of fuel subsidy had continued to recur is because Nigeria imported petroleum products for domestic consumption, warning that as long as importation continued, the problem that the government set out to confront would continue like a recurring decimal.As a way out of the subsidy conundrum, the party proposed the establishment of modular refineries with a total of 280,000 barrels per day refining capacity in nine cities - Gusau, Enugu, Ibadan, Kano, Makurdi, Maiduguri, Lagos, Auchi and Gombe, in addition to reviving existing ones.
Click here to read full news..