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Removal Of Fuel Subsidy Will Worsen Economic Harship, Criminality – Varsity Don

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4 years ago

December 3, 2021

Editor

Former head of Department of Economics, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Professor Yusufu Dalhatu on Friday, kicked against the Federal Government’s plan to remove fuel subsidy.

Recalls that on November 23, 2021, the Nigerian Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed had during the launch of the World Bank Nigeria Development Update (NDU) said the federal government would remove fuel subsidy and replace it with a monthly 5,000 Naira transport grant to poor Nigerians.

According to her, the transport grant would target about 30 to 40 million Nigerians who make up the poorest population of the country.

However, Prof Dalhatu while speaking to DAILY POST in Kaduna on Friday, frowned at the decision to remove fuel subsidy, describing it as premature, and disastrous to Nigerians, especially in this critical period when every household was facing challenges of insecurity, hunger, lack, coupled with poor healthy environment.

He said, “If fuel subsidy is removed, Nigerians can no longer breathe due to economic suffocation, as the cost of transportation will shoot up and become unbearable”, adding that majority of micro, small and medium enterprises which depend on fuel for their power generating sets due to epileptic power supply will fold up.

“The level of unemployment in the country due to job losses will increase exponentially. This is apart from increase in criminal activities, especially kidnapping for ransom and banditry.

“There is a nexus between economic hardship and criminal tendencies,” Dalhatu said.

According to him, since 1999, successful Governments refused to do the needful to turn the fortune of Nigerians, just as the four local petroleum refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna have been moribund for a long time despite the huge amount of money spent on turnaround maintenance.

He noted that, the proposed N5000-a month transport grant for 40 million poorest Nigerians is not practicable and of no benefit to the economy.

According to him, “the money should be invested on new refineries. This will be beneficial to all Nigerians in the long run”, adding that the federal government should look for investors to revive the four refineries across Nigeria and make them functional.

“Removal of fuel subsidy can only be tenable when local production of refined petroleum products begins. When this happens, fuel subsidy will fizzle out and the current brouhaha, as well as hullabaloo on subsidy will die down,” he further explained.

Related Topics:Fuel Subsidy Removal Varsity Don

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42 Killed In Israeli Attacks, Says Gaza’s Civil Defense

Published

1 hour ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported at least 42 people killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday, as the Israeli army prepared for a new assault on the Palestinian territory’s largest city.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there had been several air strikes around Gaza City — which the military is gearing up to capture — including one in the Al-Sabra neighbourhood that killed eight people.

Attacks were also reported elsewhere across the territory, he said, with the “total tally currently rising to 42 dead”.

The army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the figure.

“The situation is extremely dangerous… Each day, each minute, there are bombings, martyrs, death and blood — we can’t take it anymore,” Al-Sabra resident Ibrahim Al-Shurafa told AFP, explaining strikes and shelling were ongoing.

“We don’t know where to go. Death follows us everywhere,” he added.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

The October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,686 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

AFP

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Venezuela Frees Eight Opposition Leaders

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1 hour ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Venezuelan authorities released eight opposition leaders from jail early Sunday, including a former congressman and two Italian citizens, and granted house arrest to five others, an opposition politician said.

Most of those released had been charged with corruption in opposition-run mayoral offices.

Also set free was Congressman, Amirico de Grazia, detained amid protests that erupted during President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection in 2024.

“Today, several families are once again embracing their loved ones. We know there are many left, and we have not forgotten them; we continue to fight for everyone,” two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said on X.

Opposition leaders Victor Jurado, Simon Vargas, Arelis Ojeda Escalante, Mayra Castro, Diana Berrio, Gorka Carnevalli, as well as Italian nationals Margarita Assenzo and de Grazia were released, Capriles said.

Nabil Maalouf, Valentin Gutierrez Pineda, Rafael Ramirez, Pedro Guanipa, and David Barroso were placed under house arrest.

The Italian government confirmed the release of de Grazia and Assenzo, who must appear in court to clarify the conditions of their release. It also vowed to continue working on securing the release of other detained Italians.

“We have always said, and we maintain it: we will talk to whomever we need to talk to so that there is not a single political prisoner in our Venezuela!” Capriles added.

AFP

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Russia, Ukraine Exchange Prisoners Of War, Civilians

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1 hour ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Russia and Ukraine each sent back more prisoners of war on Sunday in the latest in a series of exchanges that have seen hundreds of POWs released this year, the two sides said.

Large-scale prisoner exchanges were the only tangible result of three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul between May and July.

They remain one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries since Russia’s offensive began in 2022.

“On August 24, 146 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled” by Kyiv, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.

“In exchange, 146 prisoners of war of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were transferred” to Ukraine, it added. Ukraine did not confirm any figures for the release.

Russia also said that “eight citizens of the Russian Federation—residents of the Kursk region, illegally detained” by Kyiv were also returned.

Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August last year, seizing hundreds of square kilometres (miles) of territory in a major setback for the Kremlin.

Russia deployed thousands of troops from its ally North Korea as part of a counterattack but did not fully reclaim the region until April.

Among the Ukrainians released on Sunday was journalist Dmytro Khyliuk, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Khyliuk was kidnapped in the Kyiv region in March 2022. He is finally home in Ukraine,” Zelensky said on social media.

Also freed was former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko, “who spent more than three years in captivity,” Zelensky’s aide Andriy Yermak wrote on X.

“In 2022, he was on the list for return, but Volodymyr voluntarily refused to be exchanged in favour of a seriously ill prisoner with whom he was sharing a cell in a Russian prison,” Yermak said.

AFP