. as Governors accuse NNPC of fraud, secrecy
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has described the fuel subsidy regime under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress, APC, administration as a monumental fraud and an unpardonable scam against the Nigerian state.
The party stated this on Tuesday in a statement signed by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondoyan, and made available to newsmen in Abuja.
This is even as the party counselled officials of APC-led government to “stop lying to Nigerians and tell the truth of how trillions of naira, claimed to have been paid as a subsidy, was cornered by APC leaders and members of the cabal in the Buhari Presidency.”
The PDP also described Monday’s declaration by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, that there will be no more subsidy and under-recovery as dramatic.
The statement read in part: “Our party notes that if the federal government is running away from its subsidy policy, the substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources, President Buhari or his Minister of state, Timi Sylva, should muster the courage to announce this to Nigerians through a policy statement.
“Our party holds that this sudden announcement of an end to fuel subsidy and commencement of a deregulation regime of the oil sector is a desperate step by the Buhari administration to stave off an investigation into the siphoning of trillions of naira by APC leaders using phoney subsidy claims.
“The PDP invites Nigerians to note how President Buhari set the stage for unprecedented subsidy looting under his regime.
“It would be recalled that in his bid to smear the PDP, President Buhari, while leading the agitation against the decision by the PDP administration to deregulate the oil sector in 2012, declared that fuel subsidy does not exist. He had called the subsidy regime and its operators a fraud.
“Rather than riding on this declaration on the assumption of office, the Buhari Presidency provided official cover for the cabal and APC leaders to use his ascendancy to power to engage in underhand dealings, plunder our nation’s subsidy resources, pillaged trillions of naira from the oil cashbox, only to now turn around to announce an end to a subsidy, seeing that there is nothing left to steal with the current international price crash.”
While chiding President Buhari for alleged lack of openness in the handling of petroleum subsidy since he assumed power in 2015; the PDP said nothing but an alleged scam on the part of APC leaders was responsible for the first citizen’s inability to speak up on the issue.
“We ask, could this be the reason behind Mr. President’s inability to make any concrete statement on the exposed subsidy scam under his administration in the last five years?
“Could it also be the reason the oil subsidy, which Nigerians where enjoying under the PDP, was adjudged a fraud but suddenly ceased to be a fraud from 2015 till Monday, even when Nigerians no longer enjoyed any benefit from the payout within this period?
“Nigerians now know the reason the APC administration had refused to allow for an independent inquest into the alleged N1.4 trillion oil subsidy sleaze through which certain APC leaders were benefiting from alleged N58 hidden toll per litre which Nigerians were forced to bear for years after fuel price was increased by the APC administration from PDP’s subsidized cost of N87 to N145 per litre.
“It is now clear to all why the APC administration had resorted to muddling up oil revenue transactions, refused to open up on federation equity of crude while frustrating free flow of information on product exchange and revenue remittances, and why they have been promoting reports on imaginary pipeline losses as well as other opaque and non-transparent transaction in a sector that is directly under the supervision of Mr. President.
“This is in addition to the over N14 trillion stolen through various shady oil subsidy contracts, including the stolen N9 trillion detailed by the leaked NNPC memo and the N1.1 trillion worth of crude stolen with 18 unregistered vessels linked to APC interests, all of which the Buhari Presidency had refused to investigate despite demands by Nigerians.
“The PDP, therefore, insists that the decision of the APC-led administration to embrace subsidy now that oil price had crashed cannot foreclose the irretrievable demand for a forensic audit of all the fraudulent under-recoveries, through which funds meant for subsidy was diverted to private pockets of APC leaders.
“The PDP is also demanding a forensic audit of over-bloated 60 million litres of petrol that NNPC claimed it was importing under its former GMD, Dr. Maikanti Baru, to justify the fraudulent subsidy payout.
“The PDP urges the National Assembly to stand on the side of Nigerians, expose all those involved, who got what in this huge scam against our nation as well as take steps to recover the over N14 trillion stolen by the cabal and certain APC leaders and channel same for the welfare of Nigerians especially at this critical time.”
Similarly, At a meeting with the NLC, the governors said until the truth about the plans on NNPC is made known, many people would be uncomfortable with the subsidy removal.
On the heels of plans by the federal government to remove subsidy on fuel, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) has accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC) of fraud and unclear intentions.
The governors said with the NNPC limited, there are raging questions of accountability with regards to subsidy and that until the truth about their plans is made known, many people would be uncomfortable with the subsidy removal.
They said this at a meeting with the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), on Wednesday, in Abuja.
The meeting was held to deliberate on the fuel subsidy removal, which both groups believe is a necessary action that the country must deal with now or in the nearest future.
It comes about three days after the federal government decided to suspend plans to remove subsidy on fuel.
The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, had said removing fuel subsidy will worsen the situation and impose more difficulties on Nigerians and President Muhammadu Buhari.
She also said the federal government is exploring ways of reaching an agreement with civic groups and the labour union to ensure the eventual removal of subsidy will have minimal impact on Nigerians.
Plans by the federal government to fully deregulate fuel price by removing subsidy has lingered for a while.
The National Economic Council (NEC) had in November 2021 recommended that the government increase the price of petrol to N302 per litre in February 2022.
Petrol price is currently between N162 and N165 per litre.
While some Nigerians say the policy will help lower the cost of living and support millions who live below the poverty line, others including the labour union believe subsidies constitute an unsustainable drain on public resources needed for critical developmental projects.
Administrators with shady plans
At Wednesday’s meeting, both the NGF and NLC agreed that the lacuna in the subsidy removal agenda was hidden in the untruths bandied by the administrators of the subsidy, particularly NNPC, which they identified to be at the forefront of the mismanagement of the proceeds accrued therein.
The Chairman Forum and Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, said it has become necessary for the two groups to carefully verify all of NNPC’s estimates to ensure that whatever action is taken on subsidy, would make the people direct beneficiaries and not a few wealthy individuals and their cronies in the country.
There are raging questions of accountability associated with subsidy removal in the country, he said, while he noted that the NGF and the NLC can work together to proffer solutions that heal the economy and provide succour to the Nigerian people.
While he argued that the pump price of surrounding countries like Niger, Mali, Cameroun and Ghana is equivalent to a US dollar, Mr Fayemi said Nigeria, though with a pump price that is less than a dollar, is uncomfortable with the removal of subsidy until the challenge of what the NNPC is telling the country is confronted frontally.
He, therefore, stressed the need for a partnership with the NLC to confront the challenges of what the NNPC is about.
…Because there is a lot of fraud in the consumption and distribution figures that the country is getting and we can only move forward if the NLC engages all those who are knowledgeable in the field like PENGASSAN to conduct a thorough research into the sector before any further action is taken on subsidy.
“Only about eight states are benefitting directly from the subsidy while all the others have to contend with the situation on their own.
The partnership with the NLC must confront the perennial issue of palliatives for the common man towards cushioning the effects of subsidy removal on the citizenry stating that not tackling the problem now is tantamount to postponing the evil day.
“Finding succour for the ordinary Nigerian at this time is absolutely imperative and necessary now more than ever,” Mr Fayemi said.
Other options
One other major agenda of the meeting was to also plead with Labour Union to jettison their decision to embark on what they referred to as a mega-strike and collaborate with the governors to consider the dimensions at play on the subsidy removal palaver.
In his contribution, the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, warned that Nigeria has a choice of continuing to spend or take concrete actions on a permanent problem – rather than throwing away N3 trillion on subsidy.
He suggested that the nation can, in the interim, increase productivity to reduce imports and create jobs.
He also emphasised that the country would do well to revamp the power sector, which is virtually comatose because, without power, millions are thrown into unemployment, and ultimately, poverty.
And the Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, said Nigerian cannot continue with subsidising petroleum products.
“We must find options and create opportunities that address the hardships that stare our people in the face.
“The painstaking work that led to the solutions that the NGF was highlighting took a year to script together. The fact that we are sitting here with Labour to resolve this contending issue does not mean that as we leave the table we should go to sleep.
“Instead, the teams from the two groups should immediately set out to work to find the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
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This meeting was held barely an hour before the NLC announced the suspension of its mega-strike, as they told the governors that their committee had consulted widely and decided to call it off before arriving at the NGF secretariat.
Both the NLC chairman, Ayuba Wabba, and the TUC president, Quadri Olaleye, stressed their lack of appreciation of the trust deficit that characterised previous negotiations and wondered why the subsidy issue had always been shrouded in lack of transparency on the part of the government.
They also argued that the conflicting figures that always came from the managers of the petroleum sector always tend towards inefficiency, which has remained, to the people and to Labour, completely objectionable.
