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By Vincent Kalu
Socio-political groups in the Southern part of Nigeria and the Middle Belt have slammed the Federal government over its claims of spending N18.397 billion per day on subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol.
The groups include Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Middle Belt Forum (MBF) and the Ijaw National Congress (INC).
During a meeting with the House of Representatives’ Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate the Petroleum Products Subsidy Regime from 2013 to 2022, on Thursday, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, had, while explaining the payments of subsidy on petrol by the Federal Government, disclosed that the government spends N283 per litre of PMS or N18.397bn per day as subsidy.
She said: “For 2023, the projection is that the average daily truck out will be N64.96 million litres per day; that is about 65 million per day, using an average rate at open market rate of N448.20k and then a regulator pump price of N165 per litre. This gives us an average under-recovery, which is the difference between N165 and N448 of N283.2k.
“So, just multiply the amount of litre per day, the open market exchange rate of naira to the dollar and then, the gap between the pump price and open market price, the total amount of subsidy per day is N18.397bn.
“So, if you are projecting for the full year, from January to December, it will be N6.715tn. If you are projecting for half a year, it will be 50 per cent of that, 3.375tn. I said earlier in the recommendations that we sent to parliament for consideration on MTEF is half-year, that will be N3.357tn.”
Reacting to this development, the Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Alex Ogbonnaya, said it was unfortunate and unbelievable that a major oil producing country like Nigeria cannot have a refinery.
“Our problem is that we have enormous resources, but we are not prudent in using them. When President Buhari was coming on board with his change mantra, it was generally believed that there was going to be a paradigm shift, but our resources have become a curse to us. We are looking towards 2023,where a new set of people will yield themselves towards a global reality.”
In the same vien, the National Publicity Secretary of the Pan Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Comrade Jare Ajayi, stated that the disclosure further exposed the opaqueness in the way government business is being run.
“In the first place, how can money being spent on a consumable on a daily basis be the same? He added that it is an elementary economic sense that consumption by human beings on a daily basis is never the same all year round. Energy consumption fluctuates just as even our food consumption is never the same day in day out,” he said.
According to Ajayi, the figure allegedly being spent on subsidy goes further to show that there is not much thinking in the direction in which we direct our resources.
“For instance, N18.397 billion amounts to trillion in two years. Would Nigeria and indeed Nigerians benefit tremendously if that money was devoted to building new refineries or revive the moribund ones?” He called on those in government to have a rethink on the way they handle public finances and public policies.
National President of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr Bitrus Pogu, stressed that: “It showed that we have gross insincerity in this government. This is a product that we produce, except that refining has been denied for a deliberate purpose and that deliberate purpose is this siphoning of our money. If not for this kind of purpose, for the all the years this government has been in power with all promises, our refineries remain dead.
“Under the claims of subsidy, our money is being siphoned. Let this government come out clean on this issue if they are sincere about serving Nigeria. They are there to govern Nigeria and not to siphon our resources.
Why would such thing be allowed? NNPC and whatever subsidiaries they are now creating, which are involved in the importation, etc, should be investigated. The National Assembly should do due diligence on this matter.”
President of INC, Prof Benjamin Okaba, said it was abysmally abnormal, condemnable, and a sign of institutional failure.
“Firstly, are the facts verifiable. Secondly, it is ridiculous after promising that they were going to fix the refineries so that the oil production will be sustainable and we still have ourselves battling with fuel subsidy. This is institutional failure, which the next government must correct. This is condemnable. The next government shouldn’t just be reeling out facts and figure, but providing solutions to return Nigeria to normalcy.”
