Fuel at 170: Nigerians slam Buhari as LCCI, MAN, NACCIMA foresee tougher times

 

Following the increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol, many Nigerians on Friday slammed the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), for the development.

Those who knocked the President included a leader of the Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo; a former Minister of Education, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili; a former presidential aide, Dr Umar Ardo; and a former Director-General of the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Prof Akpan Ekpo.

They described the Buhari-led Federal Government as insensitive to the plight of Nigerians, saying the citizens were already dealing with a myriad of issues such as unemployment, poverty, inflation, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also, based on the development, associations such as the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, and Manufacturers Association of Nigeria have predicted that the times ahead would be tougher.

They said the increased petrol price would worsen inflation and poverty, as well as lead to the collapse of many businesses.

With the latest hike, petrol price has increased by about four times in 2020. It had risen from N121.50–N123.50 per litre in June and N140.80-N143.80 in July and N148-N150 in August.

Following the deregulation of petrol prices in September, marketers across the country adjusted their pump prices to between N158 and N162 per litre to reflect the increase in global oil prices.

However, again on Friday, the pump price of petrol was hiked — after the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary of the Federal Government-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, increased the ex-depot price of petrol from N147.67 per litre to N155.17 per litre.

The PPMC, in an internal memo with reference number PPMC/C/MK/003, dated November 11, 2020, and signed by Tijjani Ali, said the new ex-depot price would take effect from Friday.

The ex-depot price is the price at which the product is sold by the PPMC to marketers at the depots.

In its PMS price proposal for November, the PPMC put the landing cost of petrol at N128.89 per litre, up from N119.77 per litre in September/October.

It said the estimated minimum pump price of the product would increase to N161.36 per litre from N153.86 per litre.

The National Operation Controller, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr Mike Osatuyi, told one of our correspondents that the over N7 increase in the ex-depot price would translate into an increase in pump prices.

“We are expecting the pump price to range from N168 to N170 per litre,” he said.

Based on the new hike in petrol price, many Nigerians slammed the Buhari-led Federal Government,  as well as the NNPC, whose action of hiking the ex-depot price led to the increase in the pump price.

Speaking with one of our correspondents, Afenifere leader, Adebanjo, described the situation as “a sad story,” saying the Buhari regime had shown that nothing good should be expected from it.

The 92-year-old elder statesman said, “It will worsen the rate of inflation, poverty and seriously affect businesses; you don’t need a crystal ball to know that. We are complaining about one thing, you are doing another thing.

“When we talk about the situation in the country, people like us get irritated because the man (Buhari) is doing everything with impunity. I’m not a happy old man; I’m very sad. Former heads of state have approached him to tell him that this is not how to run a country, can you beat that?

“What else can I say, particularly if you consider our struggle before independence and what we were able to do in the First Republic before the military came to power?”

Also, Ezekwesili said what the petroleum sector was desperately in need of was not the “cosmetic price-fixing measures of this administration that it continues to wrongly call deregulation.”

She said real deregulation and liberalisation of the petroleum sector would result in the same kind of structural change that happened in the telecommunications sector, making it possible for the poorest to have access to mobile phone services when competition among private sector companies terminated the previous government monopoly and the costly inefficiency of NITEL’s provision of telephone services.

“I guarantee Nigerians that the office of the President will no longer be attractive to those whose only interest is to control revenue from oil once we do real deregulation and liberalisation of the sector.

“That’s why they are reluctant to do real deregulation of the sector. They benefit from the government control and stagnation of the petroleum sector even if it brings suffering to the people,” she told Saturday PUNCH via a statement.

On his part, Ardo said the increment in petrol price was in a bad taste. He said it was aimed at making the people poorer, adding that the exchange rate had gone up since the announcement of the new petrol price regime.

He said, “This regime promised to fix the refineries but has refused to even fix a single one since it came to office more than five years ago.

“The regime is not a thinking one. Of course, the action will further add to the problems of the citizenry. Already, the exchange rate has gone up. A dollar now goes for N472. So, how do we cope? The price of electricity has gone up. The poor are in a serious problem. Their purchasing  power has further gone down.”