(FLASHBACK) Subsidy: Jonathan created ongoing fuel scarcity — Lai Mohammed
by akintayo eribake
Says Nigerians paying for Jonathan’s sins
By Joseph Erunke
As Nigerians continue to experience untold hardship due to current fuel scarcity in the country, the Federal Government has blamed former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration for the development.
The government said Jonathan had the blame because his government never made adequate provision for fuel subsidy in the 2015 budget.
This was even as it explained that it inherited the vandalisation of the pipelines from the immediate past administration, thus making it impossible to even transport the fuel to the respective distribution points in the country.
Speaking to State House Correspondents, Monday, after the rescheduled emergency Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, alongside Minister of Budget and Planning, Udoma Udo – Udoma, insisted that the fuel scarcity being experienced now was as a result of inadequate provision for fuel subsidy in the ongoing year by the Jonathan – led regime.
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“One of the reasons for the fuel scarcity was the inability of the last government to make adequate provision for fuel subsidy.
“We do face some other logistic problems but majorly, we are paying for the sins of the last administration .”
‘What I will be telling Nigerians is that what we met on ground is such that we are paying for the sins of the last administration. I am being very serious. You remember that about two weeks ago, we had to go to the National Assembly for a supplementary budget of N674 billion.
“Of that figure, N522billion was for arrears of fuel subsidy which was incurred as far back as August last year.
“The solution is what you have seen us doing. The first thing we have done now is to make sure that unlike before when the marketers used to import the major percentage of the fuel. NNPC has been involved in the importation, because some of the marketers had stopped importing for a couple of months.”
“If you see any fuel anywhere today, it is imported by the NNPC. We also inherited the vandalisation of the pipelines which has made it impossible for us to even transport the fuel. In tanks today we have 14 days reserve and off-tank we have 10 days reserve.
“The issue is not non-availability of the product it is the distribution, because of pipelines that have been vandalised and the gridlock in Lagos. It takes about five days for anybody to take fuel with tanker in Lagos.
“As two days ago this matter has been resolved. The Mosinmi Pipeline has been secured and it has lead to the improvement in the distribution, “he said.