Nigeria: Should the price of petrol be increased?
A leading arm of the Organised Private Sector (OPS), the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has put its weight behind the call for a hike in the pump price of petroleum products. It reasoned that, the current price of crude oil in the international market, calls for a little increase in their pump price. It further explained that a greater percentage of fuel being used in the country was imported and the difference between the local price and the international market cost the Federal Government a fortune. The chamber also revealed that oil smuggling has turned some Nigerians and foreign collaborators into over night millionaires. It would also be recalled that the leading petroleum products marketing firms recently canvassed for a hike in the pump price of petrol from the current rate of N26 to N37 per litre. The major oil marketers had given the huge price hike as the only condition for their return to the business of importing petroleum products into the country. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has been the sole importer of fuel into the country since crude oil prices escalated beyond the $30 range per barrel
The clamour for an increase in the fuel pump price in Nigeria is not new. The reason always given for successive increases in the price of fuel is the same, but the succour they claim the increment will bring in terms of availability of fuel, is never met. The latest call is ill-timed and ill-advised as the general elections are just around the corner. Any increase now can cause eruptions within the system and this will not augur well for this crucial civilian-to-civilian transition in the country. The workers can embark on a nationwide strike. This will heat up the polity and have deleterious effect on our nascent democratic experiment
Similarly, why is it that, it is the citizenry that always bear the brunt of government’s inaction? They cannot be blamed for smuggling, and since there are agencies specifically responsible for curtailing this like the police, customs, immigration, armed forces as well as other security agents. Government can effectively and decisively deal with smuggling. Also, Nigerians are already experiencing economic hardship and any increase now will further put pressure on them. Again, it will lead to a corresponding increase in the prices of goods and services, and lead to inflation. This is not in the best interest of the country
It is for this reason that, we commend President Olusegun Obasanjo for explaining the reason for the current fuel shortage of fuel in country, which according to him, has to do with the on-going crises in Iraq and Venezuela as well as the stockpiling of fuel by the United States. He further explained that, some countries which signed agreements with Nigeria on fuel supply reneged because the price at which the agreements were signed was not as high as it is now. More importantly, is the fact that, the President apologised to Nigerians over the problem and pledged to restore normalcy in the supply and distribution of the commodity nationwide within the next one week
We call on the major oil marketers to be patrotic and think about the national interest of the country rather than their immediate short term gains. Hence, they should cooperate with government to end the fuel scarcity instead of the call for increase in fuel price. It is also imperative for the NNPC to attend to the issue of Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of the refineries so that, we can locally refine petroleum products in Nigeria, for adequate internal consumption and export for the international market. That is why it is important that, government take a second look at the NNPC, restucture it, and make it more productive and accountable. The option of privatisation of refineries should also be seriously considered. Government should take bold steps to block the numerous leakages in the oil sector, while concerted efforts should be made to genuinely and promptly develop the non-oil products in the country
It goes without saying that, there are problems in the oil sector and government has taken a lot of things for granted over the years in this very crucial sector of the national economy. Now, is the time to really put things right and give priority attention to oil which accounts for about 85 per cent of the country’s revenue annually.