A former Presidential spokesperson, Doyin Okupe, on Tuesday, September 24, 2024, said he was not in agreement with businessman Aliko Dangote’s call for the complete removal of fuel subsidy.
Mr Okupe in an interview said subsidy cannot be completely removed at the moment because petrol is the economic oxygen of Nigerians.
Mr Dangote, owner of the 650,000 barrels per day crude oil refinery in Lagos, had in an interview with Bloomberg urged the Federal Government to end fuel subsidy completely.
Speaking during a 26-minute interview in New York on Monday, September 23, 2024, Dangote said the time was right to end the subsidy.
According to the businessman, fuel subsidy had cost the country trillions of naira.
However, in his reaction to Mr Dangote’s suggestion, Mr Okupe said: “With utmost respect, I disagree with Aliko Dangote on his suggestion that the government should completely end subsidy now.
“Petrol is the economic oxygen of Nigerians, whether rich or poor. This is not the situation in other countries of the world,” Mr Okupe stated.
The former Director General of tge Peter Obi Presidential Campaign said that with the rebirth of local refineries, some level of succour should be given to Nigerians.
According to him, with the allocation of 450,000 barrels a day for local consumption, Nigeria can combine the advantage of local production with local consumption and determine the price it can sell crude oil to local refineries.
“We can use opportunities that these local refineries avail us, ensuring adequate fuel supply with the dedicated or allocated daily crude oil for local consumption, which is outside OPEC quota.
“So, whatever we do with it is our internal affairs, it is a way of providing some level of comfort.
“We can sell this daily crude oil allocation for local consumption, cheaply, to determine an average pump price of PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) in the country.
“For instance, the price of Nigerian crude per barrel is $77, we can decide to sell to Dangote refinery at $35 or $37 per barrel, thereby having made adjustments of processing fees and profit margin, the pump price of petroleum can actually come down to N500 or N600 per litre.
“This will definitely bring a major relief, comfort and succour to the masses,” he said.
Mr Okupe also noted that ending the importation of petroleum products would reduce the tension and pressure on foreign exchange demand by 40 percent.
“This will give economic oxygen to Nigerian people, encouraging enterprises and local businesses because we all in Nigeria, rich and poor, depend on petrol as an economic oxygen.
“Every nation has a sector where it stands behind the people,” he added.
Mr Okupe described President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s bold step on fuel subsidy as excellent and commendable.
He said that the President had done a great job by courageously removing subsidy and eliminating multiple exchange rates.
According to him, the President’s reforms have taken root in the economic system.
“It is something very brave that no other previous administrations have had the courage to go through with it.
“What the President did was actively biting the bullets and he has been courageous enough to persevere and persist through it.
“Having done it for more than a year, my feeling and belief is that we have made enough gains, and because these refineries are upstream, we can consolidate on those gains and release the pressure on the masses a little bit.
“Fortune has played in our hands by the coming upstream of the Dangote refinery, Port Harcourt refinery and other refineries that will follow,” he said.
