Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo has said President Bola Tinubu did not remove oil subsidy.
Keyamo explained that Tinubu only inherited a budget that made no provision for fuel subsidy.
During his inaugural speech at the Eagles Square, Tinubu had said fuel subsidy was gone.
Following his announcement, some filling stations have hiked the pump price of their petroleum products.
Also, long queues have returned to filling stations across the country.
Reacting, Keyamo said Tinubu would have been starting on an illegal note if he had reintroduced fuel subsidy during his speech.
Tweeting, Keyamo wrote: “A section of the Press is mischievously twisting the narrative to read that TINUBU’s GOVERNMENT HAS REMOVED SUBSIDY. That is NOT CORRECT. TINUBU’s govt has merely inherited a regime where there was no provision for subsidy in the 2023 Appropriation Act as from June, 2023 and the Petroleum Industry Act which is now extant has no provision for subsidy.
“President Tinubu merely acknowledged this state of affairs in his inaugural speech at the Eagle Square.
“So any advocate of subsidy should convince the Nigerian people why President Tinubu should start on a note of illegality by promising to reintroduce something which the law has taken away.
“They should also convince the Nigerian people why President Tinubu should embark on a present illegality that gulped $10 billion of our scarce or unavailable resources in 2022 alone.
“Those claiming to defend the right or welfare of workers should convince the Nigerian people that $10 billion injected into the economy yearly will not jumpstart the economy enough as to create massive jobs and even increase the same minimum wage they complain about.
“That is the conversation the Nigerian people are prepared to have now.”
