The Federal Government on Saturday appealed to organised Labour to not inflict further hardship on Nigerians who are already finding things difficult in the country. It says irrespective of what Labour hopes to achieve with its planned strike, it is unwise to add more pains to the poor masses.
The appeal was made by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Lagos at a meeting with the Online Publishers Association of Nigeria
He said, “Revenues and foreign exchange earnings by the government have fallen by almost 60 per cent due to the downturn in the fortunes of the oil sector.
“There is no provision for subsidy in the revised 2020 budget. So where will the subsidy money come from?
“Remember that despite the massive fall in revenues, the government still has to sustain expenditures, especially on salaries and capital projects.
“Between 2006 and 2019, a total of 10.4 trillion naira was spent on fuel subsidy, most of which went to fat cats who either collected subsidy for products they didn’t import or diverted the products to neighbouring countries where prices are much higher.
“Instead of subsidy, ordinary Nigerians were subjected to scarcity of petroleum products.
“They endured incessant long queues and paid higher to get the products, thus making the subsidy ineffectual,” he said.
The minister added that due to the problems with the largely-privatised electricity industry, the government had been supporting the industry.
“To keep the industry going, the government has so far spent almost N1.7 trillion especially by way of supplementing tariff shortfalls.
“The government does not have the resources to continue along this path.
“To borrow just to subsidise generation and distribution, which are both privatised, will be grossly irresponsible,” he said.