* Lai Mohammed: we didn't remove subsidy, we only allowed liberalisation in the downstream ☀̤̣̈̇f the oil sector
* Ngige: The issue ☀̤̣̈̇f fuel subsidy W̶̲̥̅̊åS̤̈̊ laid †̥♥ rest in the seventh senate

The federal government has said its
hands were tied over the decision to raise the
pump price of petrol.
Speaking during a meeting with the national
leadership of the ruling party, All Progressives
Congress (APC), in Abuja, the Minister of
Information, Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, said contrary to misrepresentations
that fuel subsidy had been removed, what the
government did was to liberalise the downstream
sector of the oil industry.
Mohammed who was accompanied by the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation
(SGF), Babachir Lawal Minister of Labour and
Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige, and Malam
Adamu Adamu came to brief the party leaders
about the rationale for the downstream policy on
behalf of President Muhammad Buhari.
The ministers who took their turns to explain the
position of government, noted that the decision
to raise fuel price was made in order remove the
heavy burden being placed on the dwindling
foreign exchange earning.
"We do not have other option because the regime
before now was based on a process where some
licensed oil marketers would go to the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN)and open a lot of credit.
"When a lot of credit is opened, they bring in the
fuel but unfortunately the price of crude oil which
accounted for over 70 per cent of our foreign
exchange crashed from an all-high level of 100
dollars to under 30 dollars, As a matter of fact, for
some parts of this year we sold crude for 28
dollars," he said..
Mohammed explained that federal government
paid over one trillion naira in subsidy in 2015
alone, adding that the N1trillion in subsidy
amounted to 6 of the entire national budget.
" So we agreed that we are not going to put
subsidy, so what we did was not removing
subsidy but actually liberalization but we had to
do it because if the country is to survive we do
not have other option.
"It's just like somebody who had been earning
N100,000 a month suddenly his salary is reduced
to N30,000 he will need to make some very
painful adjustments, so the truth of the matter is
that we have to do this because there is no
availability of foreign exchange. We don't have
sufficient foreign exchange to open letter of credit
for anybody who wants to bring in fuel.
"Last month I was informed that the total amount
of foreign exchange available to Nigeria was 550
million dollars and NNPC needed 500 million
dollars out of it so you can see why it's not
working.
While addressing the gathering, SGF said that the
government delegation was at the party
secretariat at the instance President Buhari to
explain recent policy decisions.
"You will remember that in ten days time the APC
government as led by President Muhammadu
Buhari will be One year in office. In these 12
months quite a number of key decisions have
been taken.
Ngige said the issue of fuel subsidy was laid to
rest when house resolution stopped it in the
seventh senate.
"From 1999 till now there was a previous
government that didn't save for the rainy day,
they didn't.This means that if you were eating
three times a day you eat two now. When I was a
child, we eat rice on Sundays. Don't let them
deceive you there's no subsidy removal. Capital
expenditure will create jobs though not white
collar jobs, that will be few," he said.

allafrica.com/stories/201605201095.html

When my grandmother was young, Rice was deemed as only good to be used as animal feed( cock and hens).

My question to dis APC government, y must u always call past government?. I didn't see dis with OBJ or Yarauda neither GEJ. Go ahead n do d needful n stop dis nonsense wailing as if they r in d opposition

Hmmmm painful decision indeed! !!

Party of lying liars... Today fuel subsidy has been removed, tomorrow it hasn't, next tomorrow downstream sector has been liberalized and next day it hasn't.........so the circle continues, while the ever ready and gullible ZOMBIE believes.........pathetic

:DOh they av came back to deny fuel subsidy,watch zombie hail nd cheer them as usual,they love lickin baba wrinkled ass a lot

is that what they are telling us? after their promises