Drive in and buy at Mobil Filling Station along International Airport Road Lagos…yesterday PHOTO: FEMI ADEBESIN-KUTI
Consequently, petroleum marketers have now defied all odds and begun rationing the volume of fuel sold, despite assurances by the NNPC on the availability of petroleum products. While calling for a review of the subsidy regime, Iledare said: “Anytime a government has a policy, there is always a need for it to be reviewed to see whether the benefits that come from that policy are more than the cost, or they are equivalent. Let us look around. The roads are bad; hospitals are bad; schools are bad, and infrastructure not available.
On the need for an energy sector that is supportive of economic development, Iledare explained that while a sustained low oil prices may not be good for rent seeking and rent sharing, it certainly makes access to energy affordable to a large extent, at least in the short run.
He noted that the country could only end subsidy when she increases her local capacity for refining crude oil, adding that labour would soon present a document to government on subsidy issue. According to him, IMF as an international financial institution does not support government subsidy in whatever form, but the impact of subsidy removal would affect practically every goods and services in the country.
He said: “We have not been seeing this happen in Nigeria, at least at a commensurate scale. Petroleum Trust Fund of old tried to apply the removed subsidy in this manner until it ran into operational hitches. The question therefore is that, if subsidy is removed, how will the negative impact of the removal on the poor majority of Nigeria be cushioned?
“We need to follow best practices obtainable in other countries. Paying for subsidy is no longer sustainable, so we should allow market forces to determine the prices of petrol just as we did with diesel. The chamber noted that though increases in crude oil price benefits the Nigerian economy, with regards to foreign exchange earnings, it penalises the economy in terms of the huge foreign exchange commitment to importation of refined petroleum products and high energy cost.
Some government officials are not sensitive at all. How can a minister said the removal will be gradual. I can't imagine at all because one must be sensitive to ones environment
Any sensible person would have learned from history and keep quiet but not the inferiority complex you call your finance minister who could not maintain her composure in the presence of pig skin people! Tueh
These marketers are greedy, and selfish.