The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Rural Development, Honourable Oladipupo Kessington-Adetubu has thrown his weight behind the planned fuel subsidy removal by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Lawmaker representing Remo Federal Constituency made this known yesterday in Sagamu, Ogun State.
Hon. Adebutu stated that the huge amount Nigeria pays on fuel subsidy is killing the nation’s economy and hindering the development of critical infrastructures.
According to him, a large percentage of Nigeria’s income is being spent on the payment of subsidies, not only on fuel, but also on fertilizers, and this he said “dwarfs the total amount that is being spent on capital projects and provision of infrastructure” for the country.
He expressed his fears about the growth of the nation’s economy under the present circumstance, saying “a large percentage of our income is being taken by fuel subsidy, and every other thing now suffers.”
Adebutu therefore counselled that in the face of this economic reality, most communities may have to resort to ‘self-help’ to drive the development of their immediate environment, adding that it was the reason he had to personally intervene in the provision of certain infrastructure in the provision of water, roads and electricity distribution in his constituency.
His words: “The truth today is that Nigeria doesn’t have money; in the last six months that we have been in government, it has dawn on us that we have no other option than self-help.
“Let us start from the position whereby somebody who was probably earning one hundred and twenty thousand naira per month, for some reason, his income drops to N40,000.
“Irrespective of anything, when your income drops to that kind of level to a new threshold, there’s problem.”
Adebutu assured that as the Chairman of the House of Representatives Standing committee of Rural Development, he has resolved on a different template of using rural development to drive the nation’s economic growth by opening up many confined communities in the hinterlands, integrate them to the national economy and give them a new lease of life.
Comments