Founder of the Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Dr Atedo Peterside has asked those who criticised the removal of the fuel subsidy in 2012 to beg for forgiveness from former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Peterside also said the critics should apologise to Jonathan’s economic team which had the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi; and the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Recall that there were nationwide demonstrations tagged ‘Occupy Nigeria’ that began on January 2, 2012, launched by the then opposition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Jonathan administration over the removal of subsidy.

The former president, then, said Nigeria would thrive economically if the subsidy of petroleum products were removed but Nigerians rejected it, despite promising palliatives.

Meanwhile, eleven years after, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced shortly that the country could not sustain the fuel subsidy, hence, would be removed.

Tinubu disclosed that the current budget handed over to him by former President Muhammadu Buhari did not provide for the petrol subsidy.

The declaration on May 29 has sparked outrage among Nigerians as long queues mounted at petrol stations and pump prices escalated across the country, leading to rising prices of transport fares and food products.

While some said there were no palliatives to cushion the effects, some opined that the timing was wrong, as many held that fuel subsidy should be gone.

Reacting via a Twitter post on Sunday, Peterside said the fuel subsidy removal was complicated as those who opposed it in 2012 have turned out to be its supporters.

The foremost investment banker and entrepreneur also said the 2012 protesters who led the strike in during Jonathan’s administration should beg Nigerians.

“The petrol subsidy removal is complicated by the fact some liars who held sway in 2012 are now singing a different tune in 2023. They should apologise to @GEJonathan @PeterObi @NOIweala & others in the 2012 Economic Team & beg Nigerians for forgiveness so we can move forward,” Peterside wrote.

Magnetic010:
Nigerians didn’t ask the right questions then and we sure aren’t asking the right questions now…
Why do we have subsidy in the first place?
Because me import fuel right
So why do we import fuel?
Because our refineries aren’t working?
So why aren’t our refineries working?

If we fixed all our refineries would we still need to import fuel?

So why haven’t we channeled resources over the years to fix the refineries?

We stopped importation of rice because “we want to grow our economy and consume locally grown rice right?

So why did the price of locally grown rice shoot up?

These and many more are questions we should be asking the government. These are things we should demand answers to otherwise we’ll just keep hearing different nonsense every new day

seunmsg:


The part in bold is wrong. Very wrong. Government is not paying subsidy because we import petrol. Government pay subsidy because Nigerians don’t want to buy petrol at market determined price. We want to buy petrol at a price regulated below the cost of production and profit margin of petrol importers and refiners. Let’s understand this and not confuse each other, please.

ogododo:
Founder of the Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Dr Atedo Peterside has asked those who criticised the removal of the fuel subsidy in 2012 to beg for forgiveness from former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Peterside also said the critics should apologise to Jonathan’s economic team which had the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi; and the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Recall that there were nationwide demonstrations tagged ‘Occupy Nigeria’ that began on January 2, 2012, launched by the then opposition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Jonathan administration over the removal of subsidy.

The former president, then, said Nigeria would thrive economically if the subsidy of petroleum products were removed but Nigerians rejected it, despite promising palliatives.


Meanwhile, eleven years after, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced shortly that the country could not sustain the fuel subsidy, hence, would be removed.

Tinubu disclosed that the current budget handed over to him by former President Muhammadu Buhari did not provide for the petrol subsidy.

The declaration on May 29 has sparked outrage among Nigerians as long queues mounted at petrol stations and pump prices escalated across the country, leading to rising prices of transport fares and food products.

While some said there were no palliatives to cushion the effects, some opined that the timing was wrong, as many held that fuel subsidy should be gone.

Reacting via a Twitter post on Sunday, Peterside said the fuel subsidy removal was complicated as those who opposed it in 2012 have turned out to be its supporters.



The foremost investment banker and entrepreneur also said the 2012 protesters who led the strike in during Jonathan’s administration should beg Nigerians.

“The petrol subsidy removal is complicated by the fact some liars who held sway in 2012 are now singing a different tune in 2023. They should apologise to @GEJonathan @PeterObi @NOIweala & others in the 2012 Economic Team & beg Nigerians for forgiveness so we can move forward,” Peterside wrote.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/06/apologise-to-jonathan-obi-okonjo-iweala-peterside-tells-2012-fuel-subsidy-removal-critics/

seunmsg:


The part in bold is wrong. Very wrong. Government is not paying subsidy because we import petrol. Government pay subsidy because Nigerians don’t want to buy petrol at market determined price. We want to buy petrol at a price regulated below the cost of production and profit margin of petrol importers and refiners. Let’s understand this and not confuse each other, please.

Magnetic010:
So if our refineries were workin at full capacity all four plus this new dangote refinery would be even be discussing the issue of subsidy sir?

seunmsg:


Yes if we insist petrol should be sold at N195 per liter.

Zxcvbnmghtr:
So what difference will it make apologizing? Some people just like making unnecessary noise. Almost 95% of Nigerians were against the removal of the subsidy in 2012 simply because we did not trust the government of the day.

merit455:
Shut up if u don't know what to type. So APC government is 100% clean

iwaeda:


Nigeria was scammed by APC that there is nothing called subsidy.

Zxcvbnmghtr:


Am not even APC to start with. I 100% support Peter Obi's manifesto which is to remove the subsidy on psm.

merit455:
we are in the same chapter,but this APC guys are wicked politician. PDP guys are better than them

Magnetic010:
So you mean even if we refine crude here in Nigeria, fuel will still go for 500-700 per liter? You’re sure of this?

femisplash:
Atedo is a clown, nobody will apologise to any failures. GEJ removed subsidy partially and fuel price went up from 65 to 97 naira. stop making it sound like GEJ did not remove subsidy at all.

slivertongue:
We've gone pass 2012.

Subsidy removal is must. But it has been removed by Buhari but his men still budgeted for subsidy and diverted it. This administration wants money and is using removal of subsidy to jack up cost of goods which in turn will attract higher taxes.

seunmsg:


Nothing less than N400 with current market conditions. However, market conditions may push the price upwards or downwards anytime. The point of removing subsidy is not to fix price but to allow market conditions dictate the price.

Cloudflare:


Is 97 naira not better? Dude, how much are you buying fuel now? Oga, tell Tinubu to take back to GEJ days when fuel was sold for 97 naira and things were cheap

seunmsg:


Your ignorance is appalling. You think the price will remain static till now from 2012? If we’ve allowed GEJ to fully remove subsidy in 2012 and eliminate regulated prices, the price per liter would still be around N500 today so what’s your point?

Googledotcom:
But things will be better of compared to now that things are extremely difficult.