Unfair to Nigerians, the best to happen to country, reactions greet Tinubu’s removal of subsidy
The prices of premium motor spirit popularity known as petrol hit N350 per litre in Lagos and Abuja as queues resurfaced in filling stations on Monday.
Platforms Africa reports that these were buoyed by operators’ response to the immediate removal of subsidy on petrol by new president of the Africa’s biggest exporter of crude oil.
On his inaugural speech yesterday, the new president, Bola Tinubu, had stated that “petroleum subsidy is gone”.
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Though Tinububis yet to give details of model he intended to adopt, some marketers responded by increasing their prices by about 100 percent to N370 from N185 per litre.
However, few other stations especially the major marketers, sold between N195 and N220 per litre across Lagos and Abuja.
Platforms Africa reports that some marketers on Lagos-Abeokuta expressway as well as in Ota, Ogun state have already begun to shut gates against motorists, expecting to sell petrol at about N450 per litre.
in March this year, the Group Chief Executive of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, said the landing cost of petrol has risen to N315/litre.
He said “Today, by law and the provisions of the Appropriation Act, there is a subsidy on the supply of petroleum products, particularly PMS imports into our country. In current data terms, three days ago, the landing cost was around N315/litre.
“Our customers are here; we are transferring to each of them at N113/litre. That means there is a difference of close to N202 for every litre of PMS we import into this country. In computation, N202 multiplied by 66.5 million litres, multiplied by 30 will give you over N400bn of subsidy every month,” Kyari said.
Tinubu also told the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to unify the exchange rate.
The wide gap between the parallel and official exchange market rates has been largely blamed for the low influx of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) into the country.
Tinubu also said his target is to have a 6% growth of the Gross Domestic Product.
in response to the policy statement on fuel subsidy removal, checks revealed that some of the petrol stations operators simply shut their filling stations, thus leading to the emergence of long queues.
This is even as depot owners shut their operations, arguing that further clarification was needed to guide activities on the implementation of the new order.
In Abuja, long queues re-emerged at petrol stations as motorists reacted to the removal of subsidy on petrol.
Meanwhile, commuters were seen stranded at various bus stops waiting to board commercial bus which may have been trapped in the frenzy that greeted the petrol subsidy removal.
Few of the buses that were on the road for business hiked the fares between 50 and 100 per cent over fear of impending scarcity.
One of the motorists, wearing a long face, who spoke with this reporter at one of the fuel stations selling petrol, lamented, “Why would Tinubu start on this note to punish the already depressed, impoverished Nigerians inflicted by the out-gone administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“This is absolutely unfair to Nigerians. When I heard that Tinubu has directed the removal of oil subsidy, I had to rush down here to fill my tank and some jerry cans for my power generating set.”
Also, Mr John Akinloye, a motorist along the Agege area, said, “I was not surprised to see queues at the fuel stations after the announcement. I just pray this sad and unfortunate development will not last so as not to put suffering masses in another round of economic and mental torture.
“I have been at the fuel station for over an hour, and am yet to get to the fuel pump point. Even the fuel attendants are not willing to sell more than N3,000 per buyer. If you want to buy N4,000 they are refusing.”
At Conoil and Adova Petroleum stations located in Karu area of the nation’s capital, long queues were observed with stations selling at N195 per litre.
At petrol stations operated by independent marketers, pump price was hiked to between N315 and N370 per litre with the topmost price range recorded in other parts of the country outside Lagos and Abuja.
The situation, it was gathered might worsen in the coming days as workers and business owners return to work today after the holiday declared for the inauguration of the new president.
Best Thing To Happen To Nigeria, Marketer Reacts to Fuel subsidy removal
Immediate past chairman, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, who doubles as the Managing Director, 11PLC, Adetunji Oyebanji, said: “This is a welcome development. The country is bleeding every day and we are getting to a stage where if we are not careful all our revenue will be going into world-serving debt and going into the subsidy, which means we have no money left to do any other thing to pay salaries.
“The people kicking against this interest will end up suffering even more. The amount of money spent on this subsidy has been documented in so many different foray, different places, people have talked about it over the years and to make matters worse a lot of it is going towards subsiding other companies in Africa, hence it has to go.”
Oyebanji, who noted that the fuel subsidy removal was long overdue, said: “I have been an advocate of the removal of fuel subsidy because it is not benefiting the ordinary man but rather the elite who drive cars. So, I was pleased with the planned removal.”
