In my own candid opinion, I disagree with this so called fuel subsidy removal. Standard of living was better during the era of fuel subsidy. It was better when public funds were misappropriated and Embezzled. Let them eat the money and allow us to buy fuel at a subsidized rate.
Imagine since the inception of this subsidy removal dating from 29th of may 2023, I have been unable to run my power generating set (generator) due to high cost of fueling. I now buy Ice block to cool my drinks since I can't use generator to power my refrigerator In my local grocery store.
The one that shock me again is that port Harcourt to owerri I used to pay a total fare #1,500 from my residence to mbaitoli in owerri, I now paid a total amount #11,000. This is disheartening.
When I fuel my motorcycle with #1000 just to go and buy something, I can't use that fuel for the next day because I will be having empty tank. My church generator always shuts down during service since we can't afford sufficient fuel.
The one that anger me the most is that, the so called palliative which was meant to cushion the effect of the subsidy was not evenly distributed, what got to my locality was one cup of rice for one person, I learnt that two bags of rice was given to our chief, he reserved one bag for him and his family and then share one bag to the whole community he also had share from this one bag meant for the community for himself again as though he has collected before. Just the same way he reserved one for himself I know that is how everybody that had come in contact from that top(federal) had been stealing, hiding and reserving for themselves. What a country.
OP, Removal of fuel subsidy was never a bad idea but it was done wrongly, for a government that has blue print, I think the pressing needs of the masses would have been tackle before taking such decision considering it's negative impact on the citizens, The president acted as if the only problem of Nigeria is the subsidy regime and think he got it wrong, up till this very moment the cabals still loot through this process, there are still loopholes which has to be dealt with.
Our leader are very corrupt, if the government of the day want to come clean then the scrutiny has to start from the executive, I have watched closely the major reason for the repair and maintenance of our refineries is not necessarily for the reduction in the price of our petroleum products, they are doing it to either privatize it and make you believe that the are not in charge of fixing the price since it is been owned by private firm.
When you make investigation you will understand that there slight price drop of pms but it will surprise you that petrol station can not effect it because no one is ready to give them a thorough check, this is the country that we found ourselves, But I believe the government can fix things if they want to, but it is very disappointing that Nigeria is still facing the same problem of corruption since democratic dispensation.