A former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Bamidele Faparusi has advised President Bola Tinubu to divert part of the subsidy removed from premium motor spirit to gas products.
Faparusi said such will not only help the government in cushioning the current harsh effects of fuel subsidy removal on the people but will also ensure that Nigerians adopt gas as alternative to fuel.
The former commissioner for infrastructure and public utilities in Ekiti state who noted that gas adoption will develop Nigerians’ local capacity commended president Tinubu courage to implement the subsidy removal on petroleum product.
The ex federal lawmaker in a statement made available to newsmen said “After all, smuggling that bastardised the previous subsidy regime on fuel will be near impossible with Gas.
“Leadership is about the ability to take difficult decisions, and removal of subsidy on petroleum products is one of such decisions. the step will reduce demand on petroleum products and create new employment and business opportunities for Nigerians, and will also serve as palliatives to everybody both rich and poor”.
Faparusi, who was the former Coordinator, Contact and Mobilisation Committee, Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Committee in the 2023 presidential election in Ekiti State, stated that the federal government may not achieve its aim of ameliorating the suffering of the people through the proposed N8,000 palliatives to 12 million households.
“No number of buses purchased by government can solve the transportation problem brought about by the subsidy removal, therefore the government must accelerate the adoption of Gas as the alternative to fuel our vehicles and re-energise the economy. As you can notice, we now have very few vehicles on our roads, that means people productivity has dropped and that will affect the economic output of the country in the medium term. As a government we must mitigate this by exploring an alternative means of fuelling the economy through the introduction of subsidy on Gas for a period of 5years to allow for local adoption of the resource.
“In Europe, they use gas for virtually everything, and we have accountant of gas resource everywhere in Nigeria. So, government should upgrade gas infrastructure through public private partnerships and introduce subsidy to bridge the viability gap. This to me is the immediate solution to the current hardship. This policy should be time bound for say five to ten years for people to adopt it. Within that period, adoption of gas by Nigerian would have entrenched.
“If people can afford to convert their vehicles to run on gas and the technology is available, this will create more employment opportunities and reduce high cost of living. As it stands today, not only the poor, the rich also cry. This will relief masses more than sharing N8,000.”