By Emma Ujah & Victoria Ojeme
ABUJA—European Union Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. David MacRae, has urged the Federal Government to engage in wider consultations and enlightenment of the public on fuel subsidy removal for proper understanding.

He said the negative reaction from the general public on the proposed removal of subsidy from petroleum products was an indication that the generality of Nigerians was yet to come to terms with the benefits that the government claimed was inherent in the policy.

MacRae said: “It is not a popular issue according to the surveys that we have seen. I think the reactions of the general public, which is negative, is in part due to lack of trust. They are not sure if anything better can come out of it. I think it relates to the issue of governance.

“After many years of mistrust, when a new administration comes with such an idea like this, there has to be a clarification. People need to know better what amount of budget will be needed. I have heard public officers say unless the government removed the oil subsidy, Nigeria could become as broke as Greece.

“I think the Nigerians have to be informed of the facts of the matter. In a general context, subsidy on petroleum products is not a thing that countries generally want to do. If you want to help poor people you have to look at the social sectors —water, health education and access to jobs.”

He said what most countries do for their citizens is to “provide basic services like water, health, education and mass employment. Rather than subsidise petroleum products, we impose heavy taxes on fuel because it is our source of revenue.”

On same-sex marriage

Speaking on the same-sex bill, he said: “Our concern is not to promote same-sex marriages. Within the EU, there are some countries that pro-mote same-sex marriages, while others don’t.

“What we are concerned about the same-sex marriage bill passed in the Senate is that it is in conflict with international conventions to which Nigeria is a signatory.

“There is a conflict here and this needs to be re-examined before it becomes law. We respect the rights of every individual. We are talking about the consequences of bringing into law these pieces of legislation. They could have undesirable consequences.”

‘We’re Nigeria’s biggest donor’

Speaking on development cooperation, he said the development of the Country Strategy Paper, CSP, and National Indicative Programme in the 10th European Development Fund, EDF, between Nigeria and the European Union had remained an ambitious step forward in the cooperation between Nigeria and Europe and as a direct result of the Nigeria-EU political dialogue.

He said: “EU’s support is focused in three strategic areas: peace and security, governance and human rights, trade and regional integration with 677 million euro for 2009 – 2013 financed through the EDF.

“This represents the largest allocation granted to an ACP country by the EU and makes the EU the biggest donor to Nigeria.”

-Vanguard

Posted by admin on Dec 13 2011. Filed under Africa & World Politics, Latest Politics, Oil Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry