Mr President's argument on fuel subsidy removal can be summarized thus;

1. we are spending so much money on fuel subsidy
2. the money spent on fuel subsidy can be used to improve other sectors of the economy
3. the poor dont benefit as much from the subsidy as the rich
4. with subsidy in place, private refineries cant survive in business
5. if we dont remove subsidy now, we wld soon import fuel from Niger
6. if we dont remove subsidy, Nigeria wld soon be broke.
7. with the deregulation of the oil sector, competition wld bring the price down

There's no doubt that Mr President has the best intention for Nigerians, but the approach he wants to use to deliver these intentions may generate bad effects. He should look for a way to achieve this aim with minimal suffering for Nigerians. Before removing the subsidy, the following things should be put in place;

1. the 20 licensed private refineries should be completed and be fully operational.
2. t[b]he same money we use to subsidize imported fuel should be used to subsidize our own fuel (this wld create more jobs)[/b]
3. this should continue until the private refineries are strong enough to export fuel in large quantity and Nigeria has a good quantity of fuel reserve.
4. Then we can talk about removing the subsidy and allow the private refineries to stand on their own.

This approach wld minimize the suffering that Nigerians wld have to go thru and we wld still achieve the same objective. Your comments please.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.nairastation.com/discuss/index.php?topic=2.0
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------