Refiners want FX rate at N1,000/$ to reduce fuel price as Afe Babalola warns against monopoly

Babalola, Bamidele seek change of mindset to overcome challenges

The Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Afe Babalola (SAN), has chided the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) for creating a monopoly by dictating the price of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, in an already deregulated market.

This was just as the legal luminary and the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, called on the people to have a change of mindset by loving their neighbours as themselves, saying that through this, many challenges facing the country would be solved.

The duo spoke, at the weekend, during the presentation of awards to Afe Babalola and Senator Opeyemi Bamidele by the Ekiti Kete Coalition, USA, which took place at the ABUAD campus.

Babalola was conferred with the award of ‘Outstanding Achiever of All Times’, while Bamidele was conferred with the award of ‘Outstanding Political Icon’ at the event.

According to ABUAD founder, Dangote refinery must be allowed to sell petrol at its own price, while calling on the government to encourage those with financial resources to build refineries to create competitiveness.

The legal icon, however, wondered why people in his home-state have not deemed it fit and proper to honour him despite his contributions to the emergence and development of Ekiti State.

In his remarks, the Senate Leader, who was represented by Special Adviser to Ekiti State Governor on Housing and Mortgage Matter, Dr Gboyega Oloniyo, said there is no government of any state that won’t recognise Afe Babalola for what he is doing for humanity and the economy of Ekiti State. He said that it would take a long time to match him.

Bamidele posited that people are pathologically challenged, adding: “We are a generation that is doing too much of nothing, while Baba Afe is doing much with little. Baba Afe has demonstrated that roses can be grown in poverty.”

In his address, President of the Ekiti Kete Coalition, USA, Joe Olugbamila, regretted that the Ekiti State House of Assembly could reject a motion seeking to honour Afe Babalola while he was still alive despite his contributions to humanity and the state.

MEANWHILE, the Crude Oil Refiners Association of Nigeria (CORAN) has called on the Federal Government to peg the foreign exchange rate at N1,000 per dollar, to bring down petrol price to below N600 per litre.

CORAN’s Spokesperson, Eche Idoko, who made the appeal, said that government’s intervention through the pegging of the exchange rate for locally refined products could lead to a significant reduction in the price of petrol.