In May, a day after President Tinubu was sworn into office, fuel price rose from N195 per litre to N537 per litre, after Tinubu’s inaugural speech, where he said fuel subsidy was gone.
“We are taken by surprise too, but I want to state that we will need to meet with necessary stakeholders on this matter before we can make any categorical stance on this matter,” he said. They described the situation as a calculated attempt to reduce the purchasing power of Nigerians and increase hunger in the land.
Kyari was accompanied by chief executive officer of Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority , Farouk Ahmed, who further explained that petrol importers are factoring in the current international price of crude oil – at $80 per barrel – as well as freight and distribution costs, hence the pump price hike.
“We don’t have supply issues. There is robust supply. We have over 32 days of supply in the country”, he stated. “This market is deregulated; it is open to all participants. As I mentioned also yesterday when I was in Lagos, we have about 56 marketing companies that applied and obtained licenses to import. Out of those, 10 of them have indicated to supply within the third quarter, which is July, August, September.“So, when you say market forces are working, basically, what it is that you buy; you consider the price of crude going up. A couple of weeks ago, the price of crude was hovering around $70/barrel.
He said, “This increment is unacceptable to us at the Congress because it poses a significant threat to the socio-economic well-being of the citizenry, their businesses, incomes, livelihood, everything! Addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja the president of CLO, Igho Akeregha, said the civil society organisation will reject all obnoxious policies introduced by the federal government.
Igho stressed that it is crucial to differentiate between politicians who genuinely care for the country and those driven solely by self-interest.