The Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), a Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, has criticised President Muhammadu Buhari over his inability to address the rising cost of petroleum products in the country, including petrol, cooking gas, aviation fuel and kerosene and the attendant adverse impact on Nigerians.

The President of OPC, Mr. Wasiu Afolabi, in a statement issued yesterday, challenged Buhari to fulfil his 2015 election promise where he had pledged to revamp the four national refineries and ensure local production of cheap fuels to ease the burden of the citizens.

Afolabi also urged Buhari to halt any plan to remove fuel subsidy pending when the nation’s four refineries would resume operation and production of fuels.

He warned that scrapping fuel subsidy without locally-produced fuel would further escalate inflation, endanger industries and increase the hardship Nigerians are already suffering, adding that the government must equally tame the galloping prices of cooking gas, kerosene and aviation fuel.

Lamenting that the price of diesel had skyrocketed from N190 to N810, Afolabi said this has a negative effect on industries and transportation with attendant high cost of goods and services.

“Many households and families are suffering due to the high cost of cooking gas and domestic kerosene. They want the government to alleviate their sufferings by ensuring that the price of gas, for example, returns to N256/kg at most, instead of the current astronomical price of N850/kg,” the OPC leader stated.

According to him, lower fuel would reduce inflation, restore the health of the devalued naira and increase the purchasing power of citizens, with the overall boosting of the economy.

Challenging the government to invest in local production of fuel instead of importation, Afolabi said Buhari must ensure the revamping of the country’s four refineries and encourage the establishment of modular refineries.

Noting that Buhari called the fuel subsidy payment of N306.92 billion by the past administration a scam during his campaign in 2014 and 2015, Afolabi expressed disappointment that fuel subsidy had risen from N1.43 trillion in 2021 to N4 trillion in 2022 under the Nigerian leader.

He added that by running Nigeria’s economy on imported fuel in the past seven years, the Buhari-led government has sacrificed Nigerians to the unchained greed of an evil cabal that has deliberately paralysed local refining.

Afolabi said, “What is happening today was not what General Muhammadu Buhari promised Nigerians when he was campaigning in 2014. His promise to change the fuel situation by revamping the four refineries was attractive to Nigerians who were dissatisfied with the high cost of imported fuel. Nigerians voted for change. Now the situation is even worse.

“How do you explain that Buhari called fuel subsidy of N306.92 billion a scam in 2015, but under him, fuel subsidy rose to N1.43 trillion in 2021 and N4 trillion in 2022?

“By running the economy on imported fuel these past seven years, the Buhari government has sacrificed Nigerians to the unchained greediness of an evil cabal that has deliberately paralysed local refining.

“Clearly, no country will do well under such a system. Time has come to say, ‘Enough is Enough.’

“President Buhari, as the Minister of Petroleum, lacks any excuse to import petroleum products at all. Nigeria is an oil-producing country. Nigerians are blessed with petroleum resources and they deserve to enjoy the benefits of this God-given gift.”

Recalling that when the president took over in 2015, petrol sold for N87 per litre at the pump, Afolabi said today, the price has increased to about N190.

Equally faulting the high price of aviation fuel, he said the situation has increased the cost of flight tickets and made travelling by air expensive, unattractive and nightmarish.

Afolabi noted that it was unreasonable that aviation fuel which sold for N190 a few months back, now sells for N880, adding that the government allowed the situation to continue without doing anything to bring this alarming situation under control.

Describing the situation as unacceptable, the OPC leader argued that while many Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) were currently reaping the gains of the Ukraine-Russian war, with the world abandoning Russian oil and gas to seek alternatives, Nigeria which is blessed with a vast reservoir of oil and gas, remained impoverished in the midst of this vast opportunity. (THISDAY)

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