Gbajabiamila backs new pump price, wants review of minimum wage

Femi Gbajabiamila

Reps want speedy passage of PIB
Ahead of today’s emergency session of the House of Representatives, its leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, has expressed support for the removal of petroleum subsidy.

Gbajabiamila who participated in the stakeholders’ meeting where the decision to hike the price of fuel to N145 was taken argued that the government is left with no option but to take the decision in order to save the country’s economy from a total collapse.

He disclosed that the 36 states government of the federation would have faced the risk of zero allocation from the federation account if the government had continued to sustain the subsidy regime.

In an article made available to The Guardian yesterday, he canvassed a review of the minimum wage as a means of assuaging the pains faced by Nigerians as a result of the hike in the price of fuel.

Gbajabiamila who was at the forefront of the opposition to the removal of fuel subsidy enjoined Nigerians to understand with the president Muhammadu Buhari led administration who had been grappling with a reversal in the fortune of the country’s economy since he assumed the helm of affairs last year.

Meanwhile, a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the House of Representatives, Uzoma Nkem-Abonta has asked the All Progressives Congress (APC) to tender an unreserved apologies for “misleading Nigerians.”

The lawmaker spoke at the weekend following the decision of the government on subsidy removal said: “So, what changed between 2012 and now that will require the recent astronomical increase in the pump price of petroleum products to N145 if not that they have now clearly exhibited ignorance and lack of economic reasoning?”

However, Nkem-Abonta who gave backing to the removal of oil subsidy, while also advocating a total deregulation in Nigeria, said the decision was long overdue in view of the economic challenges weighing down the country, adding that, “you cannot run our economy with subsidy, it is not progressive.

Nkem-Abonta also urged president Buhari to begin the process that will culminate to a complete deregulation of the oil industry and immediately facilitate the passage of the Petroleum Industries Bill (PIB).