Civil Society Groups for Good Governance (CSGGG) have warned the federal government that removing subsidy without fixing local refineries will spell doom for Nigerians. The group said “The Federal Government needs to improve domestic refining capacity to meet local demand for it to conveniently remove subsidy on petroleum products without huge negative impact on Nigerians. This was according to the Civil Society Groups for Good Governance (CSGGG), which stated this while reacting to the government’s plan to spend N3 trillion on fuel subsidy in 2022. The government had reneged on its plan to stop subsidy payments on petroleum products following threats of industrial action by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). The move would have resulted in increase in the price of petrol if the government had implemented the removal.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday in Abuja, CSGGG’s president, Ogakwu Dominic, commended the Mele Kyari-led NNPC for ensuring hitch-free supply and distribution of petroleum products over the past four years despite various challenges facing the organisation. Dominic noted that under Kyari’s watch, the NNPC sustained its “commitment to transparency as evident in the monthly publication of its operations and financials,” adding that “the publication of the annual financial statements for 2019 and 2020 has also shown that the NNPC has improved her performance in delivering value to Nigeria.” The CSGGG president, however, expressed worry about the government’s plan to continue to pay subsidy on petrol.mThis, he said, was because the fuel subsidy bill is “growing faster and bigger than what our country’s economy can carry”.
“…If you will all recall, it was stated recently that the country needs to spend a princely N3 trillion on subsidy in 2022. In the light of this humungous sum, we join well-meaning Nigerians in calling on the Federal Government to speed up the rehabilitation of the refineries to improve availability of products locally and reduce importation. It is also important that the Federal Government also ensures that the right policies are in place and improve the country’s domestic refining capacity to meet local demand before subsidy removal is implemented,” said Dominic.
He further noted that, “One urgent measure that needs to be addressed is our country’s borders which have remained largely porous. Without a doubt, some unpatriotic elements are cashing on this gap to divert and smuggle our subsidy-coated fuel to neighbouring countries. This ugly trade is putting unnecessary burden on government’s scare resource. It is still unbelievable that we are consuming over 65 million litres of petrol every day. Only the existence of subsidy can explain this. Nigeria has one of the cheapest fuel per litre in the entire West African sub-region. Our cheaper fuel is very attractive to smugglers and something drastic needs to be done to address this ugly trend and hopefully crash the PMS consumed daily, hence a cost reduction of subsidy claims.
“We want to use this forum, to call on the Nigerian Customs Service and other relevant security agencies to pay special attention to our land borders in order to mitigate the smuggling of Nigeria’s petroleum products to neighbouring countries. We are also calling on those involved in aiding and abetting the smuggling of petroleum products to desist from this sabotage as the country is bleeding from all its openings and this can no longer be accepted. Finally, with the new Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and the transitioning of NNPC to a limited liability company under CAMA, we expect nothing less than more transparency, more accountability, more performance and more value to Nigerians.”
