The immediate past governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasiru Ahmed El-Rufai has revealed that the federal government under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been subsidizing petrol known as Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) which have so far cost the present administration trillions of naira since inception in May 29th, 2023.
He said, if not because of the subsidy payments, the price of petrol per litre could have been much higher than the diesel which is now sold above N1,000 depending on the location, compared to PMS which is about N600 to 750 per litre.
The former Kaduna state governor spoke on Monday in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital while delivering a Lead Paper at the occasion of Capacity Building Workshop on Enhancing Skills of Government Officials in Policy Implementation and Productive Human Management Resources for honourable Commissioners, Chief Advisers and Special Advisers, Senior Technical Advisers, to Governor Babagana Zulum, Heads or Chief Executives of Agencies and Departments, Tertiary Institutions and local government Chairmen at International Conference Centre, Musa Usman Secretariat, Maiduguri.
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In an interview with Journalists after delivering his paper on the theme: ‘Leadership and Public Policy: Navigating Challenges and Lessons’, El-Rufai said, “a good leader must be decisive and have the ability to make good decisions, trustworthy, empower others irrespective of political, religious or ethnic considerations, have clear communication skills and resilient in all ramifications.
“Though, it is too early to judge the present administration, is just been there for only nine (9) months, and you know leadership is work in progress, you start something as I said in my speech, you start a policy because you are absolutely sure is the right policy, but in the course of implementation, if you see bottlenecks, you modify, because the key word in leadership in my view is not ideology or anything, is pragmatism. You should always be pragmatic. You are not God, only God is perfect, so as a good leader, when you make a policy and you started implementing, and it doesn’t seem to work well, you should have the humility to stand back and said, this is not working.
“For example, if you appoint a person to a position and he is not performing to expectation, you should have the humility to say look, I need a better person to do the job perfectly. Leadership is a continuous thing and in a term of four years, you can’t assess a government of nine months.
“But as I also said earlier during my presentation, the removal of fuel subsidy by the present administration is another good policy by President Tinubu. I have always supported withdrawal of fuel subsidy. But as you can see, in the course of implementation, the government has now realized that the subsidy has to be back, because right now, we are paying a lot of money amounting to trillions of naira for subsidy even more than before, because the impact has been seen and the packages of support that will reduce the impact have not been effective in reducing the impact, and so, the federal government has to backpedal by subsidizing petrol. Many people don’t know this. If they want to know whether there is fuel subsidy or not, they should compare the prices of petrol and diesel per litre. This is because, under normal circumstances, petrol suppose to be more expensive than diesel. As it is, diesel is above N1000, while petrol stood at about N600 per litre. So we are still subsidizing for fuel in Nigeria.” He stated.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Head of Service, Barrister Mallam Fannami commended former governor El-Rufai for honoring the invitation, as participants would have the opportunity to tap from his wealth of experience in the public service after the 5-Day Workshop.
He also appreciated Governor Zulum for his unwavering commitment and passion to rejuvenate and fix the state civil service to make it a working, effective, efficient and robust service delivery institution in the state.
While declaring the workshop open, Governor Zulum who was represented by his Deputy, Dr. Umar Usman Kadafur, commend the organizers for the choice of the Lead Presenter, Mallam El-Rufai, adding that the former Kaduna state governor is not only a politician, but a man of impeccable credentials and outstanding performance and records in the public service.
While noting the ripple effects of the Workshop, Zulum said, “it will undoubtedly impact positively on the running of government business, therefore, I want to reassure our civil servants that my administration has noted the continual need for this type of training to improve the quality of our civil servants for deliver quality services to our people.” The governor stated.
