By Lanre Oloyede
Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), has reiterated his support for the removal of petrol subsidy, arguing that the policy is necessary if its proceeds are properly managed and invested for the benefit of Nigerians.
His position differs from that of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who has said he would reverse the subsidy removal if elected president, arguing that the policy has worsened economic hardship for Nigerians.
Obi spoke on Monday at a conference organised by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital.
“I subscribe and maintain that you need to remove subsidy. Mismanagement of the proceeds shouldn’t be the reason for not removing it,” the former governor of Anambra said.
“What we should have done is that when we removed the subsidy, we would have given the people alternative usage for the subsidy.
“What we have today is that, that removal and the attendant resources being recovered are also being mismanaged and stolen. For example, we have received, according to them, N16 trillion.”
Obi said his leadership blueprint for Nigeria provided for the removal of the subsidy “in an organised manner”, with whatever was recovered invested appropriately for the benefit of the masses.
While criticising the current administration for not effectively utilising the gains from subsidy removal, Obi said the funds could have been used to improve healthcare.
“The number one thing a nation needs to develop is health. But today, our health is very poor, our primary care is very poor, where we are now, we have more maternal and child issues than countries like India,” he said.
The former governor said five percent of the N16 trillion the government claimed to have saved from subsidy removal could be used to establish primary healthcare centres across the country.
“Assuming, let me use five percent, you said that they saved N15.8 trillion, so, according to them, N16 trillion. So, five percent of that is just about N800 billion,” he said.
“And if today, our biggest problem is the issue of primary care and you decide to put primary care in each ward, today it will cost you, from our own studies, an average of N100 million for one.”
The NDC presidential candidate also argued that part of the N16 trillion subsidy savings could have been used to address kidney-related health issues in the country.
“If you decide today, we have an issue now with kidney dialysis. We have over 25 million Nigerians with kidney issues,” Obi claimed.
“To build a kidney centre, you need N200 million. And we need about a thousand centres when we have less than 200.
“We need about 5,000 machines when we have less than 800. It costs you N200 million to do a centre, and it costs you exactly N10 million to buy one machine.”
Obi said the government could also have saved the funds by adding them to the country’s sovereign wealth fund.
“If they had saved the money and decided to do like any other country, we would have had $10 billion added to our sovereign wealth fund, which, if you add it today, we will get about $10 billion every month, which we can use for a purpose,” he said.
He said Nigerians should not be asked to make sacrifices while those in government continued to “feast” on public funds.
