The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, has declared that the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, presidential candidate, Peter Obi does not know what it means to fight corruption in Nigeria.
Umahi disclosed this in an interview on Arise Television while reacting to Obi's remark that he would restore the subsidy on fuel after he removed the corruption surrounding the policy if elected as Nigeria's president in 2027.
He noted that President Bola Tinubu's decision to remove the subsidy on fuel has made it possible for states to have money, stressing that the federal government is not "dashing" states' money.
According to Umahi: "When they talk about fuel subsidy gains, I laugh because people do not understand what is fuel subsidy gains as if we have a basket where we put all the money and say we are taking from here to fund fuel subsidy. What happened is that in all my eight years of being a governor, the NNPCL that is supposed to bring money into the federation account brought nothing, so that money was being used to buy subsidized fuel and now the reform has stopped that.
"Do you know that there was even a differential of one thousand naira to a dollar at the time of the differential and people were made so rich, it was such a fraud. Even for state government to fund their foreign purchases we had to go to the black market because people were taking the money from the official market and were selling it at the black market.
"NNPC is bringing the money that they were using to purportedly fund the subsidy to the federation account, it's a federation account money and its shared 48 percent to the subnational and the local government while 52 percent, so by law nobody is dashing money to the state government.
"I disagree with him, we all know that there is corruption in fuel subsidy, everybody knew that there is corruption in the dollar exchange rate, and what the president has done by removing it and getting the states to have money to pay salaries, employ people, and raise infrastructure, and so the president has done what he said that he will do.
"Does Peter Obi know what it means to fight corruption in Nigeria? There is a certain way you package yourself and it's not tenable. When Peter Obi was governor in Anambra State, go and check the statistics in Anambra State, how many hospitals were built? What is the size of roads built? Those roads can you point out one now? So the job is very easy when you are not the one doing it, when you condemn people you bring judgment upon yourself and that is the matter."
Subsidy: Peter Obi doesn't understand what it means to fight corruption - Umahi