The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has declared its opposition to the proposal of the Goodluck Jonathan government to eliminate petroleum subsidy, describing the idea as “suspect.”
The announcement was contained in a press statement issued by the association at the end of the meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) last Thursday in Eket, Akwa Ibom State, and signed by its President, Joseph B. Daudu.
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has declared its opposition to the proposal of the Goodluck Jonathan government to eliminate petroleum subsidy, describing the idea as “suspect.”
The announcement was contained in a press statement issued by the association at the end of the meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) last Thursday in Eket, Akwa Ibom State, and signed by its President, Joseph B. Daudu.
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The NBA said that while the subsidy had been intended to give the average Nigerian access to cheap petroleum products, the policy has flaws as it has become “a drainpipe for the country’s resources and an avenue to enrich a few people in and out of Government.”
The association suggested, among others, that the government should design a seven- year staggered phased removal of petroleum subsidy; repeal the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency Act 2003, as part of the phased measures of subsidy removal; cause the repeal or substantial rewording of the provisions of sections 3 and 4 of the Petroleum Act; implement the deregulation of the downstream sector as conceptualised by the Obasanjo Administration or in a better mode; and adopt exceptional strategies to minimize the effect of corruption.
“With that monster at large in Nigeria, no policy of Government will succeed,” the NBA said.
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