Dangote advocates total subsidy removal, Okupe disagrees

President of Dangote Group, owners of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, Aliko Dangote, has advocated total removal of fuel subsidy, saying it is no longer sustainable.

In an interview on Bloomberg Television in New York on Monday, Dangote said the removal of subsidy would take care of any discrepancy in consumption figures and also help government to save money.

He said: “Once you are subsidising something, then people will bloat the price and then the government will end up paying what they are not supposed to be paying. It is the right time to get rid of subsidies.

“All countries have gotten rid of subsidy. Let me give you an example. Saudi Arabia used to give (subsidy). Saudis, the citizens, believe that oil is our own God-given gift, so government shouldn’t charge us. So government was selling it at a low price.

“But today, as we speak gasoline is about 40 per cent cheaper in Nigeria than Saudi Arabia, which I think doesn’t make sense. Number two, our price for gasoline is about 60 per cent of the price of our neighboring countries and we have porous borders. So it is not sustainable.”

He said that Nigeria could not afford subsidy.

Asked if he was advocating subsidy removal to make his refinery viable, Dangote said: “We have a choice of when we produce, we can export, or when we produce, we sell locally. We are a private company. And yes, it’s true, we have to make profit.

“We built something worth $20 billion. Definitely we have to make money. The removal of petroleum subsidy is totally dependent on government, not on us. We cannot change price. But I think government should give up something for something; so I think at the end of the day, the subsidy will have to go.”

BUT a former presidential spokesperson, Dr Doyin Okupe, yesterday, said he was not in agreement with the call by Dangote for complete removal of subsidy.

Okupe expressed the position in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.

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.”

The former Director-General, Peter Obi Presidential Campaign, said that with the coming up 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 to sell crude to local refineries.