John Kekeocha, the National Secretary of the Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said that the Tinubu-led government is spending billions of naira on fuel subsidy.
He said this after Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) denied that the government is paying subsidy after admitting that the NNPCL has once again become the sole importer of fuel into the country due to foreign exchange unavailability.
Kekeocha said:
- “When the government removed the PMS (fuel) subsidy, a dollar was about N700 and they made us believe that the removal of subsidy would make the supply of products play according to the dictates of demand and supply, looking at forex as the benchmark.
- “Now, this is just simple arithmetic, if you removed the subsidy when a dollar was about N700 and today the dollar is more than N1,000, and you are still supplying and giving products at almost the same rate, what is the magic? They are subsidizing products as we speak.
- “They are spending billions of naira to subsidize products, and because they know that this country may go on fire if Nigerians buy products at about N1,000 per litre, they keep twisting facts. Why can’t they come out and tell the world the truth?
- “You cannot wake up overnight and remove subsidy without considering the pros and cons, only for you to wake up again and start putting back the subsidy into play secretly, and you think Nigerians will not know.
- “The cost of diesel is now very high, and many marketers cannot afford it, and still sell to compete with the tank farm owners who sell at about N617 per litre. Consumers cannot see where the product is sold cheap and go to where it is costly.”
- “So independent marketers cannot compete right now due to the high cost of diesel and the inability to import due to forex issue, which is why you see that the number of functional filling stations nationwide has been reducing daily.
- “It is only subsidy that can keep the price of fuel at the rate that it is now at about N600 plus. Otherwise, any moment from now, the cost of a litre of fuel will be about N800/litre or more.”
Backstory
During the PENGASSAN Energy and Labour Summit on Monday, Mele Kyari said that the NNPCL is now back to being the sole importer of fuel into the country and that those who had been given import licenses cannot import because they cannot access FX.
This led Nigerians to the conclusion that fuel subsidies have indeed returned as global crude prices are rising and the local pump price of fuel has remained at the N613 to N620 per litre range without increasing, meanwhile, diesel prices have shot through the roof at over N1000 per litre.
