Aregbesola Advocates Gas-Powered Vehicles to Reduce Fuel Subsidy
Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior, has recomended that Nigeria should cease using petroleum-driven vehicles and switch to gas-powered vehicles to reduce yearly fuel subsidy expenditures.
According to him, gas-powered vehicles must replace petrol-powered ones on national roads if Nigeria wants to achieve its goals.
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Speaking at Dr Yunus Akintunde’s 60th birthday celebration and book launch on Monday in Ibadan, he disclosed this.
Fuel subsidies spent by the federal government could transform the country’s education system and other sectors, he said.
Aregbesola says; “This concern has not been shared in Nigeria as our addiction to cheap petroleum fuel appears insatiable.
“Most of our systems are still dependent on petrol and diesel which is driving the demand for them, hence the consequences.
“But we can learn a bit from Egypt where its commercial vehicles, particularly taxis are powered by gas.
“These are the old Peugeot and Renault cars that are no longer in use in Nigeria and other parts of the world, but which have been converted to use gas and are still being used because they are well maintained. It is high time we learnt from this.
“If all our commercial vehicles run on gas, the large chunk of our demand for petrol and diesel will drop and we will save ourselves the humongous amount of money we spend on fuel subsidy. Two weeks ago, the Federal Executive Council considered N3tn as fuel subsidy.
“Let us for a moment imagine how much N3 trillion would do in providing the critical and essential needs for people from schools, to hospitals, to roads. It is huge and this is what we burn every year on subsidy.”
In the minister’s view, if the nation switches to gas-powered vehicles, its transportation costs will go down, and public transportation will benefit most.
