Atiku, CUPP, TUC, others knock Tinubu over handling of fuel subsidy

•IPMAN demands NNPCL sells at Dangote Refinery rate or refund marketers’ money
•Petrol landing cost falls to N975/litre, pump prices remain high
•Coalition condemns 14 months of ‘relentless state socio-economic terrorism’
•#Endbadgovernance movement calls for strike, mass protest over fuel price increase
•Atiku: ‘More worrying that T-pain is undisturbed by hardship’
•Tinubu’s aide encourages Nigerians to switch to CNG amid rising petrol costs

Reactions have continued to trail Wednesday’s N1,000/litre petrol price increase by the National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, with critics calling for mass protest against the government and a reversal to the pre-May 29, 2023 cost.

Specifically, the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) yesterday said, “We make bold to reemphasise that Mr Bola Tinubu prepared very well to be president, but never prepared to govern. That is the major factor in the current calamitous state of the nation.”

In an address to the press, national spokesperson Comrade Mark Adebayo affirmed that CUPP, as a patriotic and responsible opposition coalition, has a mandate to interrogate Nigeria’s socio-economic and political status and speak truth to power in defence of justice, democracy, and the country’s overall interests.

“To start with, less than 24 hours ago, despite the harrowing economic conditions of the country orchestrated by the atrocious economic policies of the Tinubu administration, the pump price of fuel was again increased to over N1,000 per litre.

“In less than one and half years of the Tinubu administration, fuel prices have been increased by over 2,000 per cent, which has exponentially increased poverty, hunger and general suffering of Nigerians as persistently unleashed on us by a totally insensitive and wicked administration. This is not the Nigeria we envisaged at the return of democracy in 1999,” he said.

Adebayo added, “While we call on Nigerians to remain resilient, we appeal to them to cooperate and collaborate with opposition political parties to free them from the undeserved suffering the Tinubu administration has unleashed on them in the last 14 months of relentless state socio-economic terrorism.”

Also, CUPP’s National Secretary Peter Ameh said Tinubu was too hasty in removing the fuel subsidy immediately after he became president. He blamed Nigerians’ current suffering on Tinubu’s initial “subsidy is gone” pronouncement.

“When he was coming in, he had not even checked the system to know what was going on, (yet) he said the subsidy was gone. That is what’s causing this untold hardship and an increase in transportation costs by over 700 per cent.

“Transportation dovetails into every sector of the economy: cost of goods and services, farm produce…Inflation has increased to over 40 per cent. We don’t know what inflation will become following this latest increase,” Ameh said.

Describing the latest hike as an additional slap on the faces of poor and struggling Nigerians, the #Endbadgovernance movement called for a 48-hour general strike and mass protest to pressure the government to reverse its policies.

“This latest increase is the second of such in a month, and it is bound to drive the Nigerian people, including workers, youth, artisans, traders, and the mass of the people, into a worse state of starvation and hardship,” leaders of the movement – Hassan Taiwo Soweto, Osugba Blessing Oloye, and Adegboyega-Adeniji – said in a statement yesterday.

Therefore, the movement demanded an immediate and unconditional reversal of the hike and the return of petrol, electricity, and food prices to their pre-May 29, 2023 levels.

It called on Tinubu to engage in dialogue with the Nigerian people to address their concerns, lamenting that the current administration is “hell-bent on driving all of us into a state of starvation.”

It urged Nigerians to rise and demand change and civil society organisations, NGOs, and labour unions to join the fight against “anti-poor policies.” In a post on X, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar reacted: “The haphazard and disingenuous approach of the current administration to fuel subsidy management has been the reason we are in this current economic crisis in the country. As things stand, there will be no let-up in the escalating inflation rate, which is drowning the material well-being of Nigerians. It is even more worrying that ‘T-pain’ is undisturbed by the hardship in the country.”

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) also asked the Federal Government to restore the petrol price to its June 2023 level. President Festus Osifo, at a press conference in Abuja yesterday, added that the government should support Dangote Refinery with foreign exchange to address sector challenges.

“We want the price of the product to go below what it was before, not just reverse to what it was before but to go below,” Osifo said. “The government should specially intervene in the sector by giving foreign exchange to Dangote Refinery at $1/N1,000 and not at the current over 1/N1,600 exchange rate to crash petrol prices.

He said further, “The solution we are proposing, if implemented, will bring us back to the price we had as of June last year. There is no government in the world that doesn’t intervene in its critical sector. The federal government shouldn’t leave it (the oil sector) to the vagaries and gyration of our naira.”

THIS came as the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) called on NNPCL to sell petrol to its members at the same rate the Dangote Petroleum Refinery supplies it.

The association has also demanded a refund if this condition is not met. IPMAN National President Abubakar Shettima Maigandi made this call during an appearance on Channels TV’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ programme, stating that the NNPC has held the marketers’ funds for three months.He emphasised that the NNPC owes marketers an outstanding debt, having obtained petrol from the Dangote Refinery at less than N900 per litre.

Maigandi expressed dissatisfaction with the NNPC’s directive that marketers purchase petrol directly from the Dangote Refinery, stating, “We have a problem with that because we already buy products from them.”

He explained that the NNPC is instructing marketers to buy petrol at significantly higher prices – N1,010 per litre in Lagos, N1,045 in Calabar, N1,050 in Port Harcourt, and N1,040 in Warri.

“When they made this increment, they told us to add money and buy above what Dangote is selling products to them,” Maigandi said. “That is the reason why we told them to return our money to our banks so that we can go directly to Dangote Refinery and buy it if that’s the case.”

He stressed that NNPC does not offer credit and marketers pay upfront for petrol. “Since they made this increment, we did not load a single truck because we have to pay cash before we load the products, and the cash down is already with NNPC,” he said.

The IPMAN president noted that, following the full deregulation of the downstream market, all marketers are now able to purchase petrol from the Dangote Refinery. He also said that fuel station patronage has decreased due to the deregulated prices.

MEANWHILE, the landing cost of petrol has fallen to N975.89 per litre, according to the latest data from the Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN).

However, this decrease has yet to translate into lower pump prices at filling stations nationwide.

MEMAN data also revealed that the landing cost of diesel stands at N1,076.35 per litre, while aviation fuel is N1,111.97 per litre. The cost of refined petroleum products is primarily determined by crude oil prices and foreign exchange rates.  Brent crude futures recently settled at $77.41 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures settled at $73.24.

Also, Billy Gillis-Harris, President of the Petroleum Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), attributed the recent hike in petrol prices to the NNPC’s reduced capacity to manage market shocks.

Speaking on Channels Television’s ‘The Morning Brief’, Gillis-Harris explained that the NNPC, which plays a crucial role in fuel distribution across Nigeria, may have reached its limit in absorbing costs related to fuel importation and distribution.

“Once there is difficulty in landing products by NNPC and the size of shock absorbing that they can do becomes overwhelming, they will certainly shed some of the loads,” he said, referring to the NNPC’s efforts to shield Nigerians from fluctuating global oil prices. “I think that’s what would have happened.”

Gillis-Harris indicated that while the NNPC had managed to keep fuel prices stable for some time following the removal of the fuel subsidy, the current situation appears to have surpassed its ability to continue cushioning the impact for Nigerian consumers.

His remarks came amid growing concerns about the sustainability of Nigeria’s fuel supply system, particularly as citizens face rising fuel costs that are further straining household budgets.

RELATEDLY, Special Assistant to the President on Social Media, Dada Olusegun, urged Nigerians to embrace Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as a “cleaner, safer, and cheaper” alternative to petrol.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Olusegun highlighted the cost-effectiveness of CNG, stating that a journey from Abuja to Lagos using CNG would cost N10,000.He also emphasised the safety advantages of CNG, noting that “a petrol tank has a higher chance of exploding due to heat than a CNG tank ever will.”

Olusegun highlighted the growing availability of CNG across Nigeria, stating, “The business of CNG is moving faster than anticipated, with stations coming up across every part of the country.”

He further pointed to the increasing accessibility of CNG financing options, citing outlets like Futurewave Energy Solutions that offer conversion services with flexible payment plans.

“CNG financing is getting better every day, with outlets like #futurewavecng allowing you to convert and pay back over time,” Olusegun wrote. He encouraged Nigerians to switch, saying, “As a safer, cheaper and cleaner source of energy, the best time for you to join the CNG camp is now.”