…Says daily consumption of fuel about 40m litres
Former General Secretary of Nigeria Union of
Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Chairman, House of
Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Hon. Joseph Akinlaja, on Monday said since there is no
appropriation for petroleum subsidy in the National Assembly, lawmakers have no
information on how much Nigeria is spending on it.
Worried that Nigeria and some other countries still
subsidising fuel for domestic consumption have spent about $5.2 trillion
globally from 2015 till date on the policy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
President, Christine Lagarde, had said at the recent World Bank/IMF Spring
Meeting in Washington DC, United States, that subsidy removal would help boost
revenue and improve local infrastructure development.
But when fielding questions from journalists on the
advice, particularly on how much the country is expending on fuel subsidy,
Akinlaja, who is the Grand Patron and Technical Consultant to tanker drivers in
Nigeria, said he lacked information on how much is being spent on subsidy.
According to him, “I cannot tell you how much is
being paid for subsidy. We know that if the government had come to the
parliament to ask for a specific amount, based on our specific consumption for
the year for appropriation, we would have known; but if they had not come here,
we cannot answer the question. It means that it is only the Nigerian Nation
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Minister of Petroleum Resources that can
answer such question.”
He however said Nigeria subsidises the price of
fuel, stating that “as for the issue of subsidy, I believe that there is
subsidy that is being paid in whatever name it is called. The executive is the
one responsible for supply and distribution of petroleum products in Nigeria.
The same executive said petrol especially should be sold for not more than N145
per litre, and the same government, specifically the NNPC, during fuel scarcity
last year, said the landing cost was N171.50.
“If oil marketers are instructed not to sell more
than N145 and the same government talks about N171.50 as the landing cost, who
is paying for the N26.50? Somebody must be paying it. Definitely, it has to be
the government.”
According to him, “As Chairman of the Committee on Downstream
sector, when we took on the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, what we heard
(from them) was 'under recovery.' What is 'under recovery'? Somebody is paying
for something. So I concluded in my mind as a knowledgeable person that the
N145 per litre is being subsidised.”
On the suggestion by IMF, the lawmaker said: “IMF
will talk to us in advisory capacity; they don't run our government for us. It
is the government that is supposed to take the decision. But as somebody who
has been in the industry for more than 40 years, I believe that the issue of
subsidy for petroleum products is outdated.
“Nigeria does not have the discipline to operate
subsidy in whatever form. Subsidy is good for agriculture or any other product.
I have been in the forefront for more than 20 years fighting against the removal
of subsidy, believing that Nigerian Government or the people responsible will
be like America, which we copy all the time, which subsidises agriculture.
“For farmers not to be out of business, if they
produce in America, there are agencies to buy the produce from the farmers and
preserve them, so that the farmer can produce next year. But here, it is the
middlemen who are being subsidised in our Nigerian situation.”
While he noted that finding solution to the problem
of subsidy would require political will and the understanding of the populace,
Akinlaja stated that successive governments have delayed removing subsidy
because of the fear of Nigerians who do not trust the leaders.
The lawmaker said: “Do you know that no government
will touch subsidy? It’s like hot charcoal; nobody can hold it in his hand for
too long. That is what deregulation of petroleum product has turned to. Every
government is afraid to do it. Why? There is loss of confidence between the
governed and the government.
“Where there is trust-where the people know that if
you remove subsidy, you are going to use it for power for everybody within two
years, they will follow and support you.”
Contrary to a December 2018 report by the NNPC that
Nigerians consumed a total of 479 million litres of petrol from January 2018 to
September 2018, representing an average of 53.2 million litres daily for nine
months, Akinlaja said following his research, he found out that the country
does not consume that much.
“In actual consumption, nobody can put his finger on
it because it varies, but if you take the average of a year, then percolate
downward to daily, we should not consume more than 34 to 40million litres a
day,” he said.
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