President Muhammadu Buhari has
reacted to the campaign promise by the Peoples Democratic Party that its
presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, will crash fuel price from N145
to N90 if elected as President.
Speaking through, Festus Keyamo,
SAN, Director, Strategic Communications of his Campaign Organisation, Buhari
described the promise as laughable and a move geared towards dragging the
country backward.
In press release issued on Monday, the President through his campaign organization spokesperson,
highlighted 20 reasons crashing the pump price of petrol will only be of grave
damage to the country.
The statement added, “Our
attention has been drawn to a statement credited to the PDP a few days ago that
its presidential candidate, H.E. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar will, if elected
President, crash the pump price of petrol to N97 per litre.
“However, there is no better
evidence of desperation and phantom promises by the main opposition’s candidate
than this statement.
“At today’s international price
of gasoline, no supplier will ever contemplate any scheme that will deliver
products at such ridiculous price. Those in the sector reading this must be
having a good laugh at the opposition.
“A simple check at the
international prices will show that even at the world market where gasoline is
procured, it will cost not less than N158 to procure a litre of crude oil.
“When you add the cost of
refining, plus freight, finance and port charges (premium), there is no magic
that one would employ to supply the finished product at N145 a litre.
Presently, the landing cost of the product in Nigeria hovers around N205 per
litre.
“The claim by Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar is opportunism of the highest order. Nigerians are aware that higher
crude oil prices will translate to higher government revenues and a prudent
administration will convert the resources to the benefit of the common man.
“This is exactly what President
Muhammadu Buhari has done since he mounted the saddle in 2015. The President
has worked out a transparent system whereby the whole subsidy regime and scam
has been totally eliminated. There is no cash incentive or payment again to
middlemen.
“In line with the President’s
transparent policy, we lay bare the present system as follows:
“(1) What obtained under the past
government was the ABUSE of the subsidy regime.
“(2) The system under the past
Government was that independent marketers and all sort of persons were allowed
to import petroleum products on their own, declare non-existent volumes of
these products and get paid for these non-existent volumes.
“(3) In addition, government
would then pay them cash for the “loses” (subsidy) in selling at fixed market
price.
“(4) Under this old system, more
than N3trillion was lost.
“(5) However, when these
independent marketers could no longer bring in products due to high prices of
crude and make profit at the fixed market price of N145 to a litre, President
Buhari refused to further raise the price of petroleum products beyond the N145
per litre. The President was also not prepared to go back to the subsidy
regime. Therefore, President Buhari stopped the scam of overblown volumes and
subsidy payments to middlemen.
“(6) As a result, NNPC took full
charge of getting products for consumption.
“(7) Under this arrangement, NNPC
would swap crude oil for the exact value of finished products in refineries
anywhere the products are available around the world.
“(8) Middlemen are only allowed
to go and ferry the products and bring into the country and hand over to NNPC.
“(9) NNPC will only then pay them
for the cost of the logistics of bringing the products in (this is what is
called premium).
“(10) Even this cost of logistics
is now subject to competitive bidding unlike before.
“(11) In the past, mareters used
to charge $86 per metric ton as cost of logistics (premium) to bring in
products.
“(12) Under Buhari’s regime when
it was subjected to competitive bidding, the highest the government got was $7
per metric ton as cost of logistics to bring in products. More than N3billion
has been saved by this bidding process.
“(13) Having gotten the value of
the crude oil back in terms of finished products, NNPC will now sell at
government controlled price which is far lower than the landing cost.
“(14) Presently, the landing cost
is around N205 per litre, but government sells at N145 per litre.
“(15) Therefore, Government just
records a loss in NNPC instead of paying cash to middlemen. That loss it
suffers is fully reflected when NNPC pays money into the Federation Account.
“(16) This also further affects
the money accruing to States monthly from the Federation Account.
“(17) As a result, this loss that
NNPC suffers, (which is recorded as cost of operation of NNPC) is fully
subjected to scrutiny by the National Economic Council which also includes the
PDP Governors and the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), which
includes Commissioners of Finance from PDP States.
“(18) If anybody alleges a scam
in the process, then the PDP Governors and the States would also be involved
because they are involved in jointly scrutinizing the records of NNPC at NEC
and FAAC.
“(19) No cash settlement for any
under recovery is involved, therefore there is no basis for any subsidy
payments which is the avenue for fraud.
“(20) Therefore, it is true that
Buhari is not paying subsidy to anybody.
“It has become necessary for
Nigerians to interrogate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar further in order for him to lay
bare before the Nigerian people the so-called ‘template’ he has developed to
crash the price. This is not a game of tricks or hide-and-seek. He must come
clean.
“Nigerians await the DETAILS of
the TRANSPARENT system Alhaji Atiku Abubakar intends to adopt that would (1)
Eliminate fraudulent cash payments to middlemen and (2) Make the product
available at all times.”
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