*’Nigeria has lowest price in W/Africa’
By Chesa Chesa
President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday refuted any planned increase of pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol across the country, just as he insisted here would be no going back on removal of subsidy in the product.
This came against reports a and speculations that petrol marketers are set to implement another hike in prices following the continued fall of the Naira against the dollar, which is used in importing the product.
The President’s stance was conveyed to State House correspondents by his spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, who said the position was taken after a briefing from officials of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
The officials also presented the president with pump price of petrol in neighbouring countries, especially across West Africa, and they are nowhere as low as what obtains in Nigeria.
Ngelale said after these discussions, President Tinubu was convinced that by quickly clearing up the inefficiencies in the downstream and midstream petroleum sector, as he intends to do, the issues of another hike in petrol price or reverting to a subsidy regime will noy arise at all.
“The official position is that there is no increase in prices at this time and that Mr. President is convinced based on information before him that we can maintain current pricing without reversing our deregulation policy by swiftly cleaning up existing inefficiencies within the midstream and downstream petroleum sector”, Ngelale explained.
He added that the President therefore viewed the threat of strike by organised labour unions as premature and unnecessary.
His words: “The President wishes first to state that it is incumbent upon all stakeholders in the country to hold their peace. We have heard very recently from the organized labour movement in the country with respect to their most recent threat.
“We believe that the threat was premature and that there is a need on all sides to ensure that fact finding and diligence is done on what the current state of the downstream and midstream petroleum industry is before any threats or conclusions are arrived at or issued.
“Secondly, Mr. President, wishes to assure Nigerians following the announcement by the NNPC Limited just yesterday that there will be no increase in the pump price of petroleum motor spirit anywhere in the country.
“We repeat, the President affirms that there will be no increase in the pump price of Petroleum Motor Spirit.
“We also wish to affirm that the President is determined to maintain competitive tension within all sub sectors of the petroleum industry. He is determined to ensure that our policy drawn up as well as policy implemented follows the cue that there will not be any single one entity dominating the market.
“The market has been deregulated. It has been liberalized and we are moving forward in that direction without looking back.
“The President also wishes to affirm that there are presently inefficiencies within the midstream and downstream petroleum sub sectors that once very swiftly addressed and cleaned up will ensure that we can maintain prices where they are without having to resort to a reversal of this administration’s deregulation policy in the petroleum industry.
“I wish to also provide a set of graphics which the President has authorized me to share with Nigerians that otherwise would be confidential. These are graphics supplied to Mr. president by the NNPCL.
“In the graphics, what you will find is the present cost of refined petroleum motor spirit at the pump in each of the West African nations that neighbour us and I’ll just name some for example.
“Senegal at pump price today of N1,273 equivalent per liter, Guinea at N1,075 per liter, Côte d’Ivoire at N1,048 per litre equivalent in their currency, Mali N1,113 per litre, Central African Republic N1,414 per litre, Nigeria is presently averaging between N568 and N630 per litre.
“We are presently the cheapest, most affordable purchasing state in the West African sub-region by some distance. There is no country that is below N700 per liter.
“So this is the backdrop we have seen that at the inception of our deregulation policy as of June 1, as Mr. President took office, we have seen PMS consumption in the country drop immediately from 67 million litres per day consumption, down to 46 million litres per day consumption. The impact is evident.
“What it also does mean though, is that we are not at the end of the tunnel. There is still a bit of darkness to travel through to get toward the light. And we are pleading with Nigerians to please be patient with us.
“And as we promised from the beginning we will be open with Nigerians will be transparent with them. We are ready to show you exactly what it is that our nation is facing with respect to the illiquidity in the market in terms of foreign exchange, as a result of what is now known to have been a gross mismanagement of the Central Bank of Nigeria over the course of several years preceding this time.”
