A recent public opinion poll conducted by the Alliance for Credible Elections (ACE-Nigeria) and CLEEN Foundation indicates that over 80 percent of Nigerians oppose the fuel subsidy removal plan.
ACE Nigeria’s, Deputy General Secretary, Asuzu Echezona, yesterday made the opinion poll’s findings available to LEADERSHIP.
The document considered arguments by government for the subsidy removal as largely flawed. Only recently, when horse trading over the payment of minimum wage raged, most State governors placed the removal of fuel subsidy as condition for its payment to workers of the N18, 000 minimum wage agreed with organised labour. On the part of the federal government, it has warned severally that retaining fuel subsidy has become unsustainable. The Nigerian economy would collapse in the next two years if fuel subsidy is not removed, the federal government has reportedly argued.
“However compelling the argument by government appears, what is perplexing is the insistence of government that it must implement the policy with or without public support. This sort of public defiance only makes one wonder whether democracy is still government by the people, of the people and for the people.” The document read.
The report noted that before the 2011 general elections, the issue of removal of fuel subsidy was already in the public domain. But curiously, despite the plethora of presidential debates held prior to the April 2011 general elections, review of Nigeria’s fuel subsidy regime was not adequately addressed thus denying Nigerians the opportunity of making choices on the contentious plan at the polling booth rather than on the streets.
“It was also expected that if Nigerians were to vote according to issues the position of political aspirants on fuel subsidy would have largely determined the ballot swing given the crucial place of petroleum in the day to day life of the average Nigerian.
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