The Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI) has expressed support for plans by the Federal Government to engage private firms to operate Warri and Kaduna refineries when they come on stream.
Chairman of IMPI, Mr. Niyi Akinsiju, said this while addressing journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, adding that the removal of subsidy on petroleum products was what was needed at this time to rescue the country’s economy.
Mr. Akinsiju also appealed to Nigerians, especially the leadership of the organised labor, to beam attention to governance at the state and local government levels, where more resources are now being allocated.
According to him, “The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) recently invited companies to bid for operations and maintenance deals for the two refineries. In a public notice on its official X handle, the national oil company explained that the move will help ensure reliability and energy security for the country.
“Under the prevailing economic circumstances, the government has no business in the petroleum refining business. The refining business is a highly specialized form of venture. I think about two weeks ago, we saw a publication by the NNPC requesting companies which have capacity to manage the refineries to apply”, he said.
“When those refineries are fully rehabilitated and delivered, it will be naive for the government to still insist that products of the refineries should be sold at subsidized price.
It was the policy of subsidy that killed the domestic refineries in the past.
“The petroleum refinery produces so many bi-products other than petrol, which can help turn around the country’s economy for the better. The fact that a poll showed over 73 percent of Nigerians opposing the policy of deregulation does not diminish its potency as the only viable option to ensure our economic recovery.
“In spite of the common knowledge that fuel subsidies were excluded from the second half of the 2023 budget, about 73 percent of Nigerians interviewed in an opinion poll said they were dissatisfied with the removal. Nonetheless, this does not detract from the fact that fuel subsidies have become Nigeria’s equivalent of an economic weapon of mass destruction,” he said.
On the skyrocketing prices of goods and services in the country, especially food stuff, Akinsuji said that the situation cannot be attributed to a single factor alone.
For him: “It is a combination of factors such as insecurity, currency floating, and low production capacity that are responsible for the present food crisis. So, the allusion that the removal of fuel subsidies had led to the current food crisis may not be entirely correct.
“The group’s findings showed that Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) constitutes an insignificant proportion to the cost elements affecting prices of goods in the country. The depreciation of the country’s currency has made our products cheaper and more attractive to our neighbors, thereby causing a scarcity of such products. We should understand that no single factor is responsible for the rising cost of products in the country.
“In the case of rice, it is about insecurity; it is, as a matter of fact, the aftereffects of the devaluation of our national currency, which has made our products cheaper. This has attracted high patronage from our West African neighbours who come to Nigeria to purchase rice,” he said.
