…says Gov’t Can Not Continue to Pay For Fuel
By Udesinanna Stephen
In support of the fuel subsidy removal, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, has disclosed that elites are the beneficiaries of the subsidy, citing that some of them have more than two cars.
He made this known during an interaction on a TV programme lately after releasing the new petrol pricing template, which raised the price from N185 per litre to between N488 – N577 across states.
According to him, elites are the main beneficiaries of the subsidy, and “38% of fuel supply goes to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Kano.
He said: “Very many of us here have at least two cars in our houses. When you buy 100 litres of fuel, the government is subsiding every three litres with N100.
He revealed that “the daily consumption of AGO (Automotive Gas Oil) or diesel is 12 million litres a day. Today, NNPCL brings less than 30 percent of that volume to the market.” He explains.
“This is exactly where we are today. So, we no longer can bear it because of liquidity. If we continue, we will run into defaults and the defaults of NNPCL are the default of Nigeria.
“Once NNPCL goes into defaults and liquidity, it affects every borrowing done by the country. Even the sub-nationals. Your lenders will come back to you and say your country can no longer pay.
“It is very clear that everybody understands this. Before today, the average subsidy level was N400 billion every month.
Responding to the suffering of the Masses, he said, “There is this common argument that the masses will suffer; that we are going to have problems with them. I agree. Once you increase prices to this proportion, as it has happened, it will have an impact on inflation. There is no doubt about it. The market determines what happens next.
