Removal of fuel subsidy and its attendant consequences, reflected the wish of Nigerians in the just concluded general elections, particularly, the presidential elections, Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo has said.
He said it would be undemocratic to query the fulfillment of the campaign promises of President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who won on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), after he canvassed for vote, promising that he would remove fuel subsidy.
The Presidential candidate of the SDP who spoke to the Tribune Online in an interview said Democratic ethos demanded that the voters knew what they wanted and they went for it.
He said it would not have been any different if the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), or Labour Party had won the election because their manifesto on fuel subsidy was that it would be removed.
“You would notice that APC, PDP and Labour Party, all agreed that if they got elected they would immediately remove the subsidy.
“So if they campaigned that way and I campaigned the opposite way and I lost the election and the three other political parties and their three presidential candidate who vowed that they would remove fuel subsidy immediately upon assuming office, if they are now implementing their manifesto, how do you blame them?
“Elections have consequences, so he Nigerian people will now understand why I said what I said, so the people who wanted to remove the subsidy, got the votes of Nigerians.
“You cannot in a democracy criticism a political leader for implementing the campaign promise he gave to the people which the people voted for. That is my attitude to it.
“Let Nigerians go back to our campaigns and what we told them will happen to cost inflation, standard of living, living wages, factor cost and all side effects and knock-in effects of the fuel subsidy.
“So it is the choice of the people. Even if the APC had not won, if the PDP had won they would have got the Same Result, If LP had won, they would have got the same result.” Adebayo stated.
He argued that the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was against the removal of fuel subsidy but maintained that the corruption that drove the figures upward was whatnot would eliminate so that Nigerians can have full benefit of the subsidy regime but that did not resonate with her Nigerian electorate who preferred subsidy removal and its consequences.
His words: “The idea that subsidy should be removed or not is the only debate which took my interest and the SDP and I were of the view that we did not need to remove subsidy but we should only remove the corruption that was escalating the cost beyond the necessity of consumption.
“You could see that you could audit it. It is easily auditable, the consumption, petrol is not something that is unauditable. So as you audit it, you see the data.
“As you are transporting, you have the data, as you are distributing to fuel stations, you will see the data. You cannot go to any fuel station and collect one liter of petrol without paying.
“They are metered at every point. If you are bringing fuel to Atlas Cove or any other offloading terminal, there are meters and even tankers are meterable.
“I have already given all the arguments I can give in favour of not removing it. And that is the stand of the SDP. And that is my stand.
“However we did not win the election, people went to vote for those they believe will remove the subsidy. In democracy, the people are sovereign, the people are the owners of their country, now, they will see the consequences.
“Maybe the problems are temporary, according to the manifesto of the PDP, APC and Labour, maybe the savings would be deployed magically to some social welfare and infrastructure and all of that. Maybe the country would be better, we would see.
“Even those who did not vote for APC, who voted for PDP, Labour, they are about 90% of the electorate who voted. These three parties agreed on it. The alternative the people had was to look towards a party like SDP who said we are not going to do it.
“If they want to be democrat, I believe Nigerians are democrat, they should just go with this their government they they voted in, that is also true of organized Labour, they should not come and cause any commotion here, because they too adopted a political party that the presidential candidate and the party manifesto said they will remove subsidy immediately.
“So it does not matter whether it is APC, PDP or Labour Party, you would get the same timing, the same result and the same Outcome.”
Abayomi challenged Nigerians to stand by its government which it has chosen to walk through the immediate consequence of the subsidy removal.
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