Wabba to the media: Direct your argument to making our refineries work, not removal of oil subsidy

 

Importation thrives due to incentives

Talks about oil SWAP arrangement

 

 

Admin l Friday, August 12, 2022

 

LAGOS, Nigeria – President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Mr. Ayuba Wabba has challenged the Nigerian media to focus their discussion on making Nigerian refineries work so that products could be refined locally and not on removal of oil subsidy.

Wabba who was speaking as a guest on Arise TV said successive governments including the present All Progressive Congress, APC led government has always promised to fix Nigerian refineries for the benefit of Nigeria during campaign, attributing refusal to fix the refineries to lack of political will by government.

He alluded to statement of the former Group Managing Director of the NNPC, who told Nigerians that the refineries will be functional by the year 2024.

He said refusal to fix the refineries has deprived Nigerian the benefit of taking advantage of the current war in Ukraine to make Nigeria a  very prosperous nation.

He said the whole of West Africa would by now be the market of Nigeria, if the refineries were working.  He said Nigerian will not buy into removal of subsidy that would lead to additional payment by Nigerians, whose income has been overtaken by devaluation of the Naira.

He said that if the refineries are working along with Dangote Refinery,  government can now work on removal of subsidy but not removal of subsidy based on importation of refined products.

He wondered why government abandoned the Oil SWAP arrangement during the Obasanjo regime, attributing the development to incentives  individuals in government receive from importation, compared to the oil swap arrangement.

He said that Nigeria remains the only OPEC country importing petroleum products and that there are over 50 countries worldwide where petroleum products is subsidized but that it is more in Nigeria because of importation.

He said the Nigerian refineries are not too old to function, adding that in India, there are refineries that are 100 years old and still functional, adding that what is normally done is an upgrade.

For those who argue that crude oil is sold at international oil price, Wabba said the country will  still look for ways to sell in Naira to Nigerian companies thereby removing the trouble of sourcing for Dollars to import the product.

He said the arguments of those that petroleum subsidy be removed fall flat based on the current price of diesel and aviation fuel  which is now beyond the price that manufacturers can conveniently pay for adding that fuel subsidy removal fuels  inflation, far beyond what the common man can afford.

He said the NLC has shared impeccable documents to government written by  a Nigerian petroleum expert based  in Texas who consults for countries on how best to make the refineries functional  but that government is unwilling to implement the document.