The African Democratic Congress Presidential Candidate in the 2023 elections, Mr. Dumebi Kachikwu, Monday, backed the Federal Government on the removal of fuel subsidy.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had during his inaugural speech announced the removal of subsidies, the development that had occasioned a hike in the price of PMS, and forced the organised labour to declare strike on Wednesday.
Dumebi in a statement he personally issued and titled’ Pain and Gain, queried the organised labour for its refusal to demand the details of all those who purchased PMS from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) in the last eight years to unravel the actual quantity of products bought and their final destinations.
The former presidential candidate, who said he campaigned against the subsidy regime, asked Tinubu to probe the subsidy regime in the last 15 years.
He said: “Like some other presidential candidates in the last general elections, I campaigned on the removal of subsidy in one form or the other. Our President, faced with mounting debts, a collapsing economy, and monumental fraud in the subsidy scheme, announced to Nigerians at his inauguration that President Buhari had left him a dangerous banana peel by failing to provide for subsidy in the budget beyond June of the year 2023 and as such he had no option but to let Nigerians know subsidy had ended.
“A politicised Nigerian Labour Congress has now joined the cacophony of voices in calling for nationwide strikes to press home their demand for a reversal of the president’s decision. I have therefore decided to pose the following questions to the Nigerian Labour Congress:
“Who removed petro|eum subsidy; President Buhari who failed to budget for it or President Tinubu who announced that it wasn’t budgeted for? If it was President Buhari as it is obvious to all why didn’t the NLC react appropriately when he was in office? If petroleum subsidy has been removed because of massive fraud in the implementation of the scheme what did the highly organised unions in the petroleum sector do to expose and identify those behind this fraud in the last 15 years?
“Why has the NLC not demanded the details of all those who purchased PMS from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) in the last eight years to unravel the actual quantities of products bought and their final destinations?
“President Tinubu should mandate the incoming National Security Adviser who must be an individual of impeccable and unimpeachable character to set up a high-powered probe of the subsidy regime in the last fifteen years or beyond to prosecute all those who have abused the scheme, recover all proceeds of the abuse, redesign a new and robust scheme with proper processes and protocols that are abuse free.
“The Federal Government should reclassify the subsidy removal as a temporary suspension of petroleum subsidy which will be in place for a period of three to six months to allow the government to restructure the subsidy program. The Federal Government should work in tandem with the state governments to do the following while the subsidy suspension lasts: fund transport voucher schemes, provide hardship allowance to the socially and physically disadvantaged, workers and students, activate mass transit schemes and provide direct subsidies to structured transport companies.
“The Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency should be alive to its responsibility and put in place a framework that ensures only major bonded fleeting companies with the appropriate technology that guarantees a seamless transfer and monitoring of products from point of load to point of discharge are allowed to carry subsidized petroleum products when and if petroleum is reintroduced.
“Fleeting companies should have color-coded trucks tied to specific regions of operation for easy identification of rogue elements. All trucks must be fitted with digital locks whose digital keys can only operate at the geo located registered point of discharge.
“In conclusion, we must all understand how subsidy abuse happens. The NNPCL provides products to marketers at subsidized rates. The marketers pick up from the vessels directly or from any NNPCL nominated or designated land tank. From the point of pick up a marketer who by the established pricing template is supposed to make N330,000 from a truck of PMS when sold in Nigeria carries it across the border and makes a minimum of N16,000,000 for the same product. Those who get coastal allocations and can roundtrip it makes an average of $10,000,000 per allocation
“This economic crime is done in full view and active connivance with some NNPCL officials, customs officials, and other officials of government from agencies in this ecosystem.
“President Tinubu must now cleanse this sector if his administration is to succeed. We can’t all suffer for the crimes of a few. President Tinubu must also call the bluff of a politicised and compromised NLC who in their silence cIII these years aided and abetted those who stole from the Nigerian people. President Tinubu, like many other Nigerians, I hope to see very soon the gain in this pain.”
