 This is the third and last conversation for the show this morning. We look at the Nigerian Petroleum Company, NMPC Ltd, presenting to the Federal Executive Council that's the FEC, a bill of three trillion a hour as what is required for the payment of subsidy for 2022 and this was disclosed by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed. The Minister said that the FEC, that's the Federal Executive Council, considered the request to make additional funding provision to enable the government to meet the incremental fuel subsidy payment in the 2022 budget and she recalled that only 443 billion is presently available in the 2022 budget meant to accommodate subsidy from January to June. Now to make sense of all of this we do have Rich Adinoyo who joins us as an economist to understand the dynamics of this situation. Rich Adinoyo, it's good to have you join us this morning. Alright, we'll try and get across, I apologize for that technical net problem, we'll try and get back to our guest, he would have some very interesting views on that. But Mercy is interesting, the times we're in, of course we've been talking about this for some days now, the fact that there was a confusion as to whether the federal government was going to go ahead with removal of fuel subsidy or not, especially when the Senate President paid his ceremonial visit to Astorock Villa and then he walked out to that same spot where he likes to stand to address the press, you know the press always went for him at that spot. And he said these words, President Buhari does not want to remove fuel subsidy. And people were like what's going on here, you know this is not what we heard because the NNPC GMD before they changed the whole setup in NNPC, he had been saying, Amalakia had been saying that there will be a removal of fuel subsidy at some point in 2022 and that the Germans would have to pay the real price or the real cost for that, it was unsustainable was his words. And then towards the third quarter of 2021, Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance and Budget and National Planning came up to say that this was the reality, that the nation can only and will only be able to fund subsidy up until June 2022. And then she gave what she was asked, okay what's going to happen when this subsidy is removed? What's the plan of the federal government? And she talked about what giving monthly stipend to 30 to 40 million poorest Nigerians, you know. And then people now started crunching numbers and crunching figures, okay if you're looking at removal of fuel subsidy, we look at the calculations. What it will cost Nigerians to the federal government to pay this 30 to 40 million poor Nigerians a transport subsidy will be more than what you just spent on the petrol subsidy. So where is the money coming from? We should be saving money then spending it. And of course President Buhari went ahead to present the budget to the National Assembly and in that budget that the president presented and laid before the National Assembly. There was no provision for fuel subsidy beyond the middle of the year. So it was sort of conflicting and surprising to hear the senate president come out and say oh you know what the president does not believe if you're a subsidy. Then he now calls, I'm sorry may I suggest a round of pressure, he now calls Zainab Ahmed and calls Timmy Presley over to his office at the senate, they have a closed door meeting and they come out and say oh we would not go on with the removal of fuel subsidy we're suspending it for now, you know. So this has been a bit confusing, it's been a roller coaster for Nigerians and you now put that in the light of agitations and threats by labour to embark on the nationwide strike which we don't need at this point. It's been a roller coaster of an experience. And you also want to add the issue of the PIA, that's the Petroleum Industry Arts that rules out entirely you know the subsidy regime and what have you, I mean at this point if we're looking at February we should entirely not be having conversation about you know fuel subsidy being in the entire system, right deregulation and all of that has been actually encouraged and so you also have the fact that we're also asking the government is also saying we're suspending the implementation or calling for the suspension of implementation of the PIA because it would also mean we go in against the law and the rule that we actually instituted so but it calls for the concern. Now the argument for subsidy and its removal has you know been ongoing for a very long time. Some people say it's not the right time to remove subsidy. Some people say it's okay to remove the subsidy but the big question lies with what are we supposed to do. Before you say you're taking out subsidy I'm sure that there are some things that should be in place before you are thinking of all of that. In the midst of all of the economic hardship let's not forget the effect that COVID-19 had on the entire economy and we have not recovered. I mean the world has not recovered Niger is still grappling. It's a good thing that we're hearing that you know we have the oil prices increasing now 90 dollars per barrel and which is a good one because remember the time where it dropped in 2014 that brought us to the recession that we're faced with. So there are too many questions but at the end of the day some people would say that a political will when the government has a political will to do anything that will get it done and that's it. Well that's so much that we can take at this point in time unfortunately we're unable to connect with our guests. Richardino you're hoping that we have this conversation subsequently on the breakfast. If you missed out on any part of it it's all right to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It's at Plus TV Africa and do subscribe to our YouTube channels at Plus TV Africa Lifestyle. I am Messi Boko. Do have a fantastic day and I'm Kofi Battels. We'll return tomorrow. Good bye.