A publisher and Public Affairs Analyst, Prince Toyin Akingbade has faulted the palliative measures put in place by Federal government to bolster the consequence of fuel subsidy removal on the people, saying it was a wrong strategy.
He stated that savings from the fuel subsidy should be evenly distributed to benefit all citizens irrespective of their class because everybody feels the heat of the subsidy removal.
Akingbade noted that the first step to be taken by the government to cushion the effects of subsidy removal was to crash the cost of governance saying it was a contradiction for the government to be talking of fuel subsidy removal on one hand, only to be recklessly increasing the cost of governance on the other hand.
The Human Right Activist who decried the high cost of governance in the country insisted that only a conscious downscaling of the cost of governance at all levels including the National Assembly members who recently took over N100Billion as their own shares of Palliative will save Nigeria from imminent insolvency.
Akingbade, who strongly advocated a shift from consumption to production, regretted that Nigeria had remained the only oil-producing country without a functional oil refinery, a development which he said, smacks of cluelessness in leadership.
Said he; “We must think differently if we must move forward as a nation. We must start producing oil, and stop being a consuming nation”.
Continuing, the News Reporters Newspaper publisher stressed that Government at all levels must think deeply and rescue Nigerians from serious economic woes, as failure to do that is simply to plan for a crisis.
His words; “We are all poor now and rapidly reverting to hitherto unimaginable practices as people now trek kilometers to eke a living, this is not an advancement but retrogression.
“The church and Mosque offerings have dwindled, attendance has gone down drastically, and the joy of being in the presence of God has disappeared from the faces of many members owing to what they are going through”
He said that despite the numerous assurances by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that the subsidy is gone, finding shows that the federal government paid N169.4 billion for month of August and September to sustain the N617 per litre.
“A document by the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), sighted, showed that in August 2023, the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) paid $275m as dividends to Nigeria via NNPC Limited. NNPC Limited used $220m (N169.4 billion at N770/$) out of the $275m to pay for the PMS subsidy. Then NNPC held back $55m, illegally”
He noted that the revelation by FAAC effectively indicates that the subsidy is back and NNPC is now taking NLNG dividends to pay the subsidy.
The exchange rate in September was N820/$ but now N920/$, indicating a 12.19 per cent increase.
“In addition to the rapid depreciation of the naira in Nigeria’s most accessible (black) FX market, the price cap on gasoline has made it difficult for marketers.
“As of the last week of September, PMS was trading for $1,090.11 per metric tonne at the international market compared with the $859.25 it traded around July when NNPC increased the pump price to an average of N617 per litre. This shows an increase of 19.88 per cent
He concluded that we can’t think of removing subsidy without a functional refinery, without the stability of FX. For example, if the price of crude goes up, our petrol price must go up, now coupled with our volatile Fx, we must fix our system not kill the masses.” He said.
