Tuesday, the Federal Government disclosed plans to increase the price of petrol next month. This came after the Acting Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, Mrs. Sotonye Iyoyo, asked the Federal Government to automate the operations of the PPPRA to improve transparency and form a pricing framework to encourage local refining and discourage importation of petroleum products in the long term.
Senator Mao Ohuabunwa has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to apologize to Nigerians for his inability to handle the country’s economy and for creating hardship for them with the fuel crisis. Ohuabunwa said: “It is unfortunate that Nigerians would have to go through this hardship in the midst of plenty; we are acclaimed the fifth largest oil producing nation. I think it is important that the government in power apologizes to Nigerians because the level of hardship is getting too much.” He continued: “It is very clear that this scarcity has gone off hand, we cannot manage it, we have been on it for over two months now. The Minister of State has said it would abate in two weeks, but the Minister of Petroleum who is President Buhari has not said anything. We should look for a lasting solution so that we do not relapse into this again”.
In Abuja, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, stated the fuel scarcity would end in Lagos and Abuja tomorrow, while it would end in other states by the end of the week. He also stated that the Federal Government was considering the privatization of the petroleum industry, so that the operators would source and run the industry, while the government would only be involved in price regulation. He explained that with regulating the petrol prices, the country had been able to save a lot of money within the first three months of the year, adding that the savings would be used to fund the gap recorded in pricing in April.
He said: “The reality is that in the first three months of the price modulation, our recovery basically enabled us to save quite a lot of money and that is going to fund the gap that we see in April. But for May, obviously, the prices would have to be adjusted to mark the current trends. Our proprietary positions are for two different concerns. As petroleum Minister, my goal is to make sure that the price of crude oil continues to climb, but as NNPC GMD, our goal is to ensure that people buy product at cheaper price. They do not go together somehow. So most times, I try to balance the curve. The whole fuel queues had been a complete nightmare for me. The reality is that I hurt more than every Nigerian who is at the filling stations. I am very emotional about my job and the things I do. We just need to take the right policies. As hard as they are, as difficult as they come, we need to take the right policies to ensure that we do not have a recurrence of this fuel subsidy. It has been with us historically, but I don’t want that to define my legacy in the petroleum sector. Hopefully, by tomorrow, Thursday, the fuel queues in Abuja should be over. Hopefully, the same thing should happen in Lagos and, thereafter, by the weekend, we should see same in Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Port Harcourt and a few other states,” he said.