TheCable

The Social Democratic Party (SDP)  says the removal of the petrol subsidy by President Bola Tinubu could be a tool for social justice if properly implemented.

According to NAN, Olu Agunloye, SDP national secretary, said in a statement on Thursday that Nigeria needed such tough decisions for its survival.

He said the subsidy removal could positively impact economic development, adding that having concrete implementation policies, programmes and projects would multiply local refineries and lead to complete deregulation.

He further said the government should ensure an increase in national productivity and competitiveness that would cause a significant increase in the welfare of people.

“We recognise subsidies as fiscal tools used by governments to foster economic development, usually to maintain prices of commodities or products at a particular level,” he said.

“It is a design which, when properly deployed, becomes a tool for social justice in line with the SDP manifesto.

“We have noted that successive past nine presidents of the federal republic over the past 37 years announced the removal of fuel subsidy but did not have the political will.

“They do not have the determination to accomplish this but rather only multiplied the ills of the fuel subsidy making severe negative impacts on the economy and the people of Nigeria.

“We have noted that for almost four decades, successive governments of Nigeria found something wrong with what necessitated the fuel subsidies but had kept making things worse and could not address the problems positively.”