Festus Keyamo, former Minister of State for Labour and Employment, has called the media reports claiming it was President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who ended the subsidy on petrol as “mischievous.”

In a series of tweets, Keyamo explained that the Tinubu-led administration simply inherited a situation in which there was no provision for subsidy in the 2023 Appropriation Act as of June 2023 and the Petroleum Industry Act.

He went on to say that the money invested into fuel subsidy is sufficient to create mass employment and raise the minimum wage.

He tweeted: “A section of the Press is mischievously twisting the narrative to read that TINUBU’s GOVERNMENT HAS REMOVED SUBSIDY. That is NOT CORRECT. TINUBU’s govt has merely inherited a regime where there was no provision for subsidy in the 2023 Appropriation Act as from June, 2023 and the Petroleum Industry Act which is now extant has no provision for subsidy. President Tinubu merely acknowledged this state of affairs in his inaugural speech at the Eagle Square.

“So any advocate of subsidy should convince the Nigerian people why President Tinubu should start on a note of illegality by promising to reintroduce something which the law has taken away. They should also convince the Nigerian people why President Tinubu should embark on a present illegality that gulped $10 billion of our scarce or unavailable resources in 2022 alone.

“Those claiming to defend the right or welfare of workers should convince the Nigerian people that $10 billion injected into the economy yearly will not jumpstart the economy enough as to create massive jobs and even increase the same minimum wage they complain about.

“That is the conversation the Nigerian people are prepared to have now.

President Tinubu hit the ground running by announcing the removal of fuel subsidy during his inauguration speech.

Integrity News reported that the president held a closed door meeting with key officials at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, including his Vice, Kashim Shettima, and House of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila as he officially assumed office on Tuesday.

Others are the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, the Group Managing Director of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari, and Executive Secretary of Nigeria Midstream and Downstream petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, among other top officials.