Mr. Eric Mekwuye is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Hotel, Restaurant, Cafe, Bakery and Beverage Mentors (HoReCaBB Mentors), a Lagos-based training partner for Global Foodservice Institute (GFI)-State University of New York (GFI-SUNY).Mekwuye is of the opinion that fuel subsidy removal should be accompanied by regular power supply.<em

What is your stand on the fuel subsidy removal plan?

WE understand as organisation that subsidy removal is long overdue. Government was sharing money to certain persons in the name of subsidy; we do not really need it. The question has always been ‘Who is actually benefiting from the subsidy’? It is only the people in Lagos and some parts of Abuja. Port Harcourt, an oil city, hardly sells fuel at N87.00 even when there is no scarcity. So, who was the government subsidising for?
Let government harmonise the price of fuel to ensure that the people in the rural and urban centres are buying at the same rate.

How do you plan to survive the increase in pump price that may result from subsidy removal?

We understand that the price of fuel will go high, if subsidy is removed. But if it goes high, we have no choice than to direct it to consumers.

However, the question should be that the money the government would realise, how would it be channeled into infrastructural development? If we have regular power supply, we will be saving cost from buying fuel to power generator(s). In my office, we have three generators. But with regular power supply, we may just need only one generator, and channel the money for the maintenance and fueling of the other two into other aspects of the business.

If government is sincere to direct money saved from subsidy removal into infrastructural development, things may be better. Infrastructure for us in the business circle means regular power supply. If government will give us regular power, I am 100 per cent behind the fuel subsidy removal.

By the time government removes subsidy and provides regular power supply, the cost of other products will crash, because there is no business that does not factor in power cost. With regular power, the increase we shall get in buying fuel will ease out.

Asking the government not to remove subsidy is like saying ‘no’ to a painful treatment for a debilitating condition. Yes, treatment comes with pain, which in turn leads to healing and happiness.

My appeal is within six months; let us have regular power after the removal of fuel subsidy. With regular power, fuel consumption will reduce. An average family buys five litres of fuel every two days, but multiply that with about 20 million families in Nigeria, you will come to realise that the cost of fuel consumption is astronomical. So, average family man who spends money to buy five litres of fuel can use such money to boost his living standard.

Furthermore, the cost of manufacturing will reduce. Average manufacturer spends money to buy fuel to produce goods. In my office, we run generators through out when we have programmes. Therefore, if we spend about N45, 000 to fuel generators every month, with regular power supply we may just have to pay bill of about N8, 000. The remaining N37, 000, we are going spread it on the product itself. It is necessary that people be informed.

The sad thing is that government may remove subsidy, but may fail to provide the necessary social amenities. What did the past administration do with the partial removal of subsidy few years ago? Nothing! Honestly, most people who are saying do not remove subsidy do not understand it. They are just following the multitude.

I think if the subsidy is removed, Nigerians will be buying fuel at the international market price. Right now it has dropped from $150.00 to about $30.00 when it was $150.00, we were buying fuel at N87.00, but now that it is lower, it should be lower in Nigeria.