For an entire month, the hike in price of Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) has not dipped below 120 Naira in black markets across Nigeria; this phenomenon is largely exacerbated by the fact that there is scarcity of petroleum products in the country.
And key players in the sector have continuously promised Nigerians that the scarcity will soon be a thing of the past and I almost believed this delusion until yesterday -18th March 2013, when Petroleum Minister, Diezani Allison-Madueke, gave the clearest hint that subsidy on petrol and kerosene is soon to be removed indefinitely. She made the assertions during the ongoing “Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference” in Abuja –at least we can now be confident that we now know from the horse’s mouth. And therefore can infer, with great certainty, that the petroleum marketers had been clandestinely in-the-know of Government’s intention to remove subsidy, so they jerked up their prices even before it is done. The saddest part is that, I think, the rise in pump price has come to stay. Once more, the common citizens of Nigeria are paying dearly for the diversions, fraud and corruption of NNPC and Petroleum Marketers alike.

For an entire month, the hike in the price of Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) has not dipped below 120 Naira in black markets across Nigeria; this unfortunate circumstance is largely due to the fact that there is scarcity of petroleum products in the country. And key players in the sector have continuously promised Nigerians that the scarcity will soon be a thing of the past, and I was almost misled by such delusions until yesterday -18th March 2013, when Petroleum Minister, Diezani Allison-Madueke, gave the clearest hint that subsidy on petrol and kerosene will soon be removed indefinitely. She made the assertions during the ongoing “Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference” in Abuja –at least we can now be confident that we now know from the horse’s mouth. And therefore can infer, with great certainty, that the petroleum marketers had prior knowledge of Government’s intention to remove subsidy, so they jerked up prices ahead of the removal. The unfortunate thing about this situation, is that I think the rise in pump price has come to stay. Once more, the common citizens of Nigeria are paying dearly for the diversions, fraud and corruption of NNPC and Petroleum Marketers alike.

With the fiasco and hullabaloo of January 2013 i.e., after the partial removal of subsidy and the “now” impending/soon-to-be implemented removal of subsidy by Government, pertinent questions come to mind? Must complete removal of subsidy be the only remedy for petrol scarcity? Must you always change your roof each time you find that your house is leaking? What would adequately account for the failure of the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme? Now, given subsidy is completely removed, how can Government ensure that petroleum products are available and affordable if the marketers deliberately decide to hoard their goods, thereby increasing the demand for the product and extorting the buyers?

Let me give an example, last week in a Local Government Area in Plateau State which has about ten filling stations in the town, the owners met and connived to lock up their fuel stations and only one of them would be opened at a time and he would sell at 150 per litre till he runs out of fuel then the other opens and so on. Even for the N150/litre, we endured long queues and at some points had causes to exchange invectives over spaces on the queue. In the same LGA, there is an NNPC mega station, which has not received supply for more than two weeks now. Do I smell a rat?

In trying to woo Nigerians into accepting the minimum of the removal of subsidy, the “Lucky” President promised that more jobs would be created from monies meant for subsidy but just last weekend, no fewer than 18 people died trying to secure jobs in Nigeria Immigration Service alone, not to mention the ones injured and the larger bulk of more than 90% of the applicants which are likely to reappear if vacancies in the same NIS are advertised next year. I still don’t get the intervention of SURE-P when unemployment, illiteracy, child mortality and insecurity keep soaring at almost the same altitude as the ever-increasing price of petrol. It was in the same SURE-P that 500billion Naira was declared missing last year, and for obvious reasons of corruption, Christopher Kolawale, the pioneer SURE-P Chairman tendered his resignation last year. Perhaps I am ignorant but frankly I have not seen any significant effect of SURE-P in my State even though, I must admit, I have seen some SURE-P projects in other States but how really has SURE fared since 2012? Please forget Okonjo-Iweala’s magnificent reports on SURE-P and the economy and focus on what is obtainable in your community. Isn’t it obvious that we deserve a better deal?

Back to the artificial scarcity conundrum, why is it impossible to refine crude oil in Nigeria to meet domestic needs alone? Why must we always import the refined petroleum products? If I understand the Petroleum Minister well, constructing new refineries and boosting existing ones are not really considered as options towards solving petroleum scarcity in Nigeria. Rather removal of subsidy and total dependence on petrol importers is, in her wisdom, a more viable option. I remember clearly, during the days of protest against removal of subsidy – before NLC and TUC sold out – Professor Tam David West, who was Petroleum Minister during Buhari’s regime declared that the whole subsidy itself was a scam and that Nigeria has the propensity to refine oil to meet her domestic needs. Had I not dug through the annals of history, I would have said that Tam West was building castles in the air but during their regime, Nigeria was exporting refined petroleum out of Nigeria, now how was that possible? The same man sent a memo offering to provide a recipe for Nigeria to refine and sell petrol at 41 Naira per litre but he was not even invited by the ‘Facrook’ Lawan-led committee and what is the outcome? – closed files of the committees’ reports and an invariable exoneration of culprits like Femi Otedola and his allies. The benefits of refining our crude oil locally far outweights that of importing them. For Instance, Iran, Venezuela, Iraq, Libya and and host of other countries endowed with Petroleum beneath their lands sell PMS at less than half of a Dollar per litre, in other words, less than 75 Naira per litre after subsidy has been removed and tax deducted.

I am fully aware that the Petroleum importers and Marketers are the most beneficial opportunists but removing subsidy completely will not make them any poorer, they may as well connive and sell PMS at 200 Naira when it is finally removed. Before they remove the subsidy completely, I would advise that they ensure functional refineries are kept in place, efficient and continuous supply of electricity and other means of energy, and also provide a very enduring railway system that will provide an alternative means of transportation. If these conditions are met in reality, then they can remove their subsidy.

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Before the subsidy on petroleum products is completely removed – by Bizum Yadok