The report that President Buhari has ruled out the possibility of heeding calls by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other leading economists to remove fuel subsidy dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Guardian reports that President Muhammadu Buhari has ruled out the possibility of heeding calls by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and other leading economists to remove fuel subsidy.
The President said this in an interview he granted Bloomberg with the transcripts made available to newsmen by his media office in Abuja, yesterday.
With fresh fuel scarcity biting across the country, he said though his administration planned to remove fuel subsidy last year, further consultation with stakeholders, as well as events, which unfolded this year, made the move increasingly untenable.
Defending his government’s retention of fuel subsidy against the advice of experts, President Buhari said: “Most western countries are today implementing fuel subsidies. Why would we remove ours now?
“What is good for the goose is good for the gander. What our western allies are learning the hard way is what looks good on paper and the human consequences are two different things. My government set in motion plans to remove the subsidy late last year. After further consultation with stakeholders, and as events unfolded this year, such a move became increasingly untenable,” President Buhari said in the written responses to Bloomberg questions.
The newspaper says that Nigerian troops have found two former schoolgirls who were abducted by Boko Haram jihadists eight years ago, the military said Tuesday, freeing some of the last victims of the 2014 Chibok abduction.
The two women each carried babies on their laps as they were presented by the military, after captivity with militants who stormed their school in April, 2014 in northeast Nigeria in a mass kidnapping that sparked international outrage.
Major-General Christopher Musa, the military commander of troops in the region, told reporters the girls were found on June 12 and 14 in two different locations by troops.
“We are very lucky to have been able to recover two of the Chibok girls,” Musa said.
Dozens of Boko Haram militants stormed the Chibok girls’ boarding school in 2014 and packed 276 pupils, aged 12-17, at the time into trucks in the jihadist group’s first mass school abduction.
Fifty-seven of the girls managed to escape by jumping from the trucks shortly after their abduction while 80 were released in exchange for some detained Boko Haram commanders following negotiations with the Nigerian government.
In the recent releases, one of the women, Hauwa Joseph, was found along with other civilians on June 12 around Bama after troops dislodged a Boko Haram camp, while the other, Mary Dauda, was found later outside Ngoshe village in Gwoza district, near the border with Cameroon.
The Punch reports that fuel scarcity worsened in Lagos, the Federal Capital Territory and other parts of the country on Tuesday, resulting in motorists spending hours at filling stations.
For oil marketers, the solution to the worsening fuel queues across the country is for the Federal Government to approve an increase in the pump price of the commodity.
Although some marketers had already raised the price of fuel in their outlets, they admitted that the move had not been approved by the government, noting that dealers could be sanctioned for selling above the regulated rate.
The approved pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, is N165/litre, but marketers are currently kicking against this rate, saying that it is no longer sustainable going by the global crisis in the energy sector.
A retail outlet located in the Kubwa Village Market, Abuja, dispensed petrol at N195/litre to motorists and still had queues.
Heavy fuel queues were seen in the few filling stations that sold petrol at the approved rate on Tuesday. Some of them included: the NNPC close to Gwarimpa on the Zuba-Kubwa expressway, Total filling station opposite the headquarters of NNPC, Nipco filling station on Zuba expressway, among others.
The newspaper says that the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, has raised the alarm on the impact of the ‘Obidient’ movement on the chances of the ruling All Progressives Congress and Peoples Democratic Party at the 2023 presidential elections.
The ‘Obidient’ movement refers to the supporters of the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi.
In a video posted by the African Independent Television, which has now gone viral, Obaseki noted that youths in Nigeria no longer want the APC and the PDP.
He said, “The future of our politics is changing, if you have been watching the level of disenchantment with the existing political parties.
“I’m sure in all our homes, we have people who call themselves ‘Obidients’. Ask them which party they belong to, they say ‘Obidient.’ They don’t want us.
“They are not talking about the APC or the PDP. They are looking for alternatives.”
Also, the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Victor Umeh, has stated that the mass movement trailing the presidential aspiration of the Labour Party candidate, was giving APC and PDP “sleepless nights” and “serious scare.”
The Nation reports that to demonstrate sincerity in the airport concession programme, Nigeria’s Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, has led a team of officials of the Ministry, agencies and organised labour on a tour of two concessioned airports, Istanbul Airport in Turkey and Brasilia Airport in Brazil.
The team included the Rector, Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria, Capt Alkali Modibbo, Acting Managing Director, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, Matthew Lawrence Pwajok, the Transaction Adviser on Airport Concession, Dr Abba Ibrahim, and the Director-General, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, Micheal Ohiani.
According to the minister, the objective of the visit, is to dispel doubts on the sincerity of the Federal Government on the concession programme and to reassure Labour of its benefits.
He reiterated the government’s commitment to ensuring transparency and accountability till the final delivery of the project.
At the two airports, the area was presented with visual stories of their transition and positive impact of their concessions.
GIK/APA