A former presidential aide Doyin Okupe, has countered Africa’s Richest Man Aliko Dangote’s call for the total removal of petrol subsidy.
Okupe, who served as the Director General of the Labour Party, LP, during the 2023 Nigeria’s Presidential election said during an interview in Lagos, on Tuesday, that removing petrol subsidy totally will harm many Nigerians because of their dependence on the product for economic survival.
The former presidential aide was reacting to an interview granted by Dangote to Bloomberg where he called on the federal government to hands off subsidizing petrol for Nigerians.
His remark comes amidst the outbursts that have trailed the price hike in the pump price of petrol to as much a N1,200 per litre, and the attendant scarcity in some major cities in the country.
Not a few Nigerians have called for an immediate reversal considering the impacts of such increase in their lives and the untold hardship many families are suffering as a result.
The business mogul and owner of Dangote Refinery, one of the largest petrochemical refinery in the world claimed that Nigeria’s petrol is still the cheapest among the crude oil producing countries.
Reacting Okupe said the importance of petrol to Nigerians cannot be overemphasized because “petrol is the economic oxygen of Nigerians, whether rich or poor.”
Okupe said Nigerians should enjoy the fact that their country is an oil producing country, stressing that with the allocation of 450,000 barrels a day to Dangote and other local refineries by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, petrol price should be cheaper.
According to him, “We can use opportunities that these local refineries avail us, ensuring adequate fuel supply with the dedicated or allocated daily crude oil for local consumption, which is outside OPEC quota. So, whatever we do with it is our internal affairs, it is a way of providing some level of comfort. We can sell this daily crude oil allocation for local consumption cheap to determine the average pump price of PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) in the country.
“For instance, the price of Nigerian crude per barrel is $77, we can decide to sell to Dangote refinery at $35 or $37 per barrel, thereby having made adjustments of processing fees and profit margin, the pump price of petroleum can actually come down to N500 or N600 per litre. This will definitely bring a major relief, comfort and succour to the masses.
“This will give economic oxygen to Nigerian people, encouraging enterprises and local businesses because we all in Nigeria, rich and poor, depend on petrol as economic oxygen. Every nation has a sector where it stands behind the people.’’
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