Fuel Subsidy Removal: FG To Purchase 1,600 Mass Transit Buses

Source: huhuonline.com
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At an emergency meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the Federal Government on Wednesday disclosed that it will provide 1,600 mass transit buses, as part of the

long term plans to cushion the harsh effects of the removal of fuel subsidy.

Olusegun Aganga, minister of trade and investment, Labaran Maku, minister of information and Idris Umar, minister of transportation, revealed that the 1,600 mass transit buses formed part of the N10 billion revolving loan set aside by the government to address transport infrastructure in the country.

Huhuonline.com http://Huhuonline.com/ findings also confirmed that apart from the transport mitigation, the President has also directed all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to pay the monthly salaries of workers by January 20 to ameliorate the harsh effect.

Aganga said the revolving loan is payable over a five years period and attracts a five per cent interest rate under the Urban Mass Transit Programme and would be made available to credible transporters, labour unions and other Nigerians involved in transport business.

 
"We have a duty to turn short term pain to long term gains," adding that "government has placed order for massive supply of decent diesel buses to solve transportation problem. In the next couple of weeks, there will be sufficient mass transit buses. It will go on for two years.

"Any moment from now, we should take delivery of these buses. As the Federal Executive Council, we are not here to punish Nigerians.

"For the first time, we want to put in place a sustainable robust mass transit programme", says loan at five per cent interest rate to be made available to transporters "to reduce the pains fellow Nigerians are going through now.

"We have been undertaking poverty and social impact analysis to see what impact this will have on Nigerians. That is because we realised the pain it will cause and today's meeting gave us the opportunity to empathise and to know that it was a very painful decision.

 
"I think we will all agree that the economy case has been a case of how and when but we have a duty as government to cushion the temporary pains. We have a duty to convert the pain to long term gains for Nigerians and the economy," he said.

In the same vein the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku said "the meeting was called to deliberate on very crucial national issue particularly on the deregulation of the downstream sector of the Nigerian oil industry. Mr President called the meeting to expedite action on the measures to cushion the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy.

"Previous governments have postponed deregulation, the intended benefits did not come true because for as long as government continuous to monopolise the sector, no private sector will come in and invest.

 
"Haven taken this plunge, to go back will be to cripple the economy. That is why we are calling on our citizens to bear with us. In no time, the prices will come down unlike in the past where a marketer used to hoard fuel because government was subsidising, that would no longer be the case. The customer will be king now, because if they don't sell, they won't recover their money.

"Our country is in a difficult situation and we are appealing to the citizens to appreciate this difficulty. With the measures we have taken, we are confident that we will correct the imbalance in the economy.

"There is no way a country will survive with N5 trillion debt and uses N500 billion to service debt. The entire capital budget is completely borrowed and if it continues, the economy will collapse and companies will be forced to cut work force.

Speaking further on the planned declaration of strike by NLC, he said "We believe it will be of greater harm to Nigerians for labour to insist on strike because it will further compound the sufferings of the people, because if we do not support production and continue to support that, one third of the budget be used to support consumption, will spell doom.