Governors of the 36 states under the auspices of the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF, have expressed their support for the decision of the Federal Government to increase the price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, from N86 to N145 per litre.
It would be recalled that the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, yesterday embarked on an indefinite strike, carrying out protests to force government to rescind its decision on the hike in pump price of petrol.
But speaking at the end of a meeting of the NGF held inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun told State House correspondents that deregulation should be considered as “sacrifices that must be paid by all”.
The governors’ meeting, which started at about 8.45pm on Wednesday, ended in the early hours of Thursday.
While stating that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari means well just as the governors mean well for the country, Amosun said: “We supported it (increase in fuel pump price) because we believe that it is in the interest of the masses.”
He said the belief was that only the rich benefit from fuel subsidy as against the masses, stating that the money saved from subsidy would be used to develop infrastructure. He added that the masses would be better for it in the long run.
According to the Ogun governor, “These are sacrifices that must be paid by all. The President means well, the government means well, all of us mean well.
“If truly we are caring for the masses, we believe that subsidy only serve the rich, those that are getting us the fuel, and not the masses.
“We believe that such money that have been saved from the subsidy would be used for infrastructural development particularly for social services for all of the down- trodden masses.
“We are putting our weight behind it while urging the Federal Government and indeed the state governments to see how we can ameliorate all the problems the masses would probably go through in the short run because in the long run, they would be the better for it.”
