Peter Obi, the presidential candidate for the Labour Party (LP) has disclosed that subsidy should be directed to health, not petroleum to reduce poverty.
Speaking at the Arise TV presidential debate held on Sunday, Obi described as unacceptable the increasing poverty rate, saying to tackle the budget deficit, the government must cut cost of governance and remove petroleum subsidy.
“The Federal Government must work seamlessly with sub-nationals for us to have a meaningful development, particularly in reducing poverty.”
He added that the country has no business subsidizing petrol when the health sector is in need of funding, noting that the budget for the health sector is unacceptable and must be increased to at least 10 per cent if the country wants to stop experiencing the brain drain currently marring the health sector.
Peter Obi emphasised that as opposed to investing in petroleum consumption, government needs to focus on more critical areas such as health, education, and fighting poverty.
He said, “These are areas where you have to do subsidy not in petroleum consumption. There are areas where government do subsidies and it is for productive and development areas that are critical like health, education, and fighting poverty.
“These areas are where you need to invest, so, there is need for fiscal package to support the insurance, which will allow them to treat high to low diseases. It’s been done in Indonesia, in India, I will show you big nations that are practising it.
“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, we just need to learn what is being practiced somewhere and do the same.”
