The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, Peter Obi, has said that the mismanagement of fuel subsidy funds should not serve as justification for reinstating the regime.
Obi said this on Monday during a panel discussion at the Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA.
“I firmly believe that the subsidy should be removed. The mismanagement of the funds should not deter us from removing it,” he stated at the event held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
“What we ought to have done is provide the populace with alternative uses for the funds once the subsidy is removed. Currently, the resources recovered from its removal are also being mismanaged and stolen,” he stated.
Obi said that the funds generated from the removal of the subsidy should be reinvested in critical sectors such as healthcare.
“For instance, according to the Federal Government, we have received N16 trillion. I have previously stated this; refer to my manifesto, where I outline my plan to remove the subsidy.
“We will implement this in a systematic way, and all recovered funds will be invested wisely. I will provide an example, but time is limited.
“The issue lies in how the funds are utilised,” the former governor of Anambra State told the audience in the coastal city.
“We will allocate the funds in a structured manner, or we will save them. Had the funds been saved and managed like in other nations, we could have added $10 billion to the sovereign wealth fund, which, if compounded today, would yield approximately $10 billion monthly for designated purposes,” he further stated.
Peter Obi reveals how he would have handle fuel subsidy removal