He made the disclosure on a visit to Daily Trust head office in Abuja, the minister said the government was very sincere, committed and focused towards pursuing development goals.
He said: “Yes we are experiencing some temporary pains but honestly I can assure you that given the commitment of the administration and given the commitment of the cabinet and government all these temporary pains would be a thing of the past.
“I know that Nigerians today are groaning under the yoke of fuel scarcity and I am glad to say that both chambers of the National Assembly actually approved the supplementary budget and it is amazing that of the N574 billion or so that was approved as supplementary budget close to N421 billion of it is for fuel subsidy alone.
“I know that when we went to the National Assembly asking them to pay arrears of 413 billion which was supposed to cover last year August till the end of September, by the time it was being considered the NNPC came and said look, why do you want to do this thing in bits; why don’t we resolve the matter once and for all.
“That is why what was approved yesterday; the entire N574 billion, N22bn of it is for fuel subsidy while the balance is to continue the war effort in the North-eastern part of Nigeria.
“Now, people ask us why we waited for this to happen. The truth of the matter is that the money approved in 2015 budget for fuel subsidy was exhausted and we had to go back to the National Assembly to seek approval.
“We had the money; we could easily have paid the marketers but that would be unlawful spending without appropriation. But I can assure you that by the grace of God Nigerians will not experience this kind of scarcity again.
“It is not just about being owed in arrears; it is also based on the fact that some very unpatriotic Nigerians are also taking advantage of the situation to make life much more uncomfortable for Nigerians.
“But honestly we believe that in a few days’ time this money would have been paid and all these long queues will disappear. We are not going to make excuses but we do have challenges and some of these challenges are hampering our movement but we are committed and we are focused and we believe that in a few days to come; especially with the submission of the 2016 budget to the national assembly Nigerians should begin to heave a sigh of relief.” Daily Trust reports.
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