No plan to remove oil Subsidy. - Presidency

The Presidency on Thursday said it had no plans to remove oil subsidy. Presidential spokesman, Dr Doyin Okupe, in a statement in Abuja, said despite President Goodluck Jonathan’s recent remark concerning subsidy, the administration, as a matter of policy, had no plans in that direction. Besides, Dr Okupe, who said the President was mindful of the reactions and plight of the Nigerian people, maintained that sufficient allocation for fuel subsidy has already been made in the 2013 budget “therefore there is no cause for alarm on removal of fuel subsidy. On the President’s remark at the Economic Summit in Lagos, Dr Okupe said “It was a frank, intellectual and well-articulated contribution by the President to the discussion on the Nigerian Economy at the said Summit, and it was from a honest and sincere leadership perspective”. President Jonathan’s remark had generated a furore with attendant lamentations from the Nigerian public who viewed the move as anti-people and a plot to hike pump price of petroleum products. According to Dr Okupe” The President and this administration are not insensitive to the plights of the Nigerian Masses and will continue to pursue and execute policies and programmes that are in the overall interest of majority of Nigerians and that will bring the greatest good to the greatest number of our teeming population.” He said further “It is an undeniable fact that every responsible leadership, genuine stakeholder and patriot must be worried when a Nation spends about N1 Trillion, an equivalent of about 20% of the National Budget, on subsidy paid out to a few Companies and enjoyed in the main by very few elites, while the common man benefits only minimally.”