?Says incessant fuel price hike is an agenda of government to empower only elites

Civil Rights Advocacy Group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has lamented that emerging statistics have now demonstrated that the incessant hikes in the pump price of fuel was simply this government?s selfish agenda to empower elites who may have funded their political campaigns in 2023 and companies associated with their cronies or friends.

?The truth and nothing but the truth is that policy of incessantly hiking the pump price of fuel and Petroleum products, were never meant to benefit the commoners of Nigeria. The primary goal is to financially reward friends of those holding sway in the current administration, their cronies or business affiliates.

?The hikes in the costs of fuel have only brought instability in the prices of essential food items and the inability of millions of absolutely poor households in Nigeria to buy their essential food items, has resulted in malnutrition of hundreds of thousands of children, mass hunger, increasing number of out-of-school children, and starvation and untimely deaths?.

?Whereas most poor Nigerians perish in unmitigated poverty and unpredictable high costs of living, only very few people running businesses in the Oil and gas sector are making a kill by way of profits as data and statistics made available at the weekend have shown this irrefutable fact. HURIWA is appealing to these Oil and gas companies to roll out CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY INITIATIVES to economically empower the millions of increasingly impoverished Nigerians or else, the business climate of Nigeria will become perilous and dangerous because if the POOR CAN?T SLEEP BECAUSE THEY ARE HUNGRY, THE RICH CAN NOT SLEEP INEVITABLY BECAUSE THE POOR, ANGRY PEOPLE ARE AWAKE.

Besides, HURIWA endorsed the claim by the Nigerian labour Congress (NLC) that fuel marketers Including Dangote refinery have colluded to inflate the costs of fuel even as it has called on Nigerians to increase public pressure on the National Assembly to investigate the allegation of collusion and inflating of cost of fuel.

HURIWA recalled that the Nigeria Labour Congress had at the weekend accused Dangote Group and oil marketers of ganging up to rip Nigerians off in the Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) pricing. NLC disclosed this in a communiqu? on Sunday after its National Executive Council Meeting held on Friday.

The Union noted that the current price of petrol, which stood between N1060 and N1,200 per litre, is higher than the market value.

According to the NLC, the high petrol price in Nigeria is an indication of the prevalence of cost padding and abnormal margins in the country?s oil and gas sector at the detriment of Nigerians.

The Union called on the Nigerian government to immediately activate the Port Harcourt refinery takeoff and other government-owned refineries.

?The NEC-in-session noted with increasing dismay the shenanigans around the appropriate pricing of petrol (PMS) in Nigeria.

?It was observed that there may be a gang-up against Nigerians by fat cats in the industry as the current price of the product is significantly higher than the real market price.

?Padding of costs and abnormal margins seems to be the order of the day considering the revelations from the ongoing controversy between Marketers and Dangote Group.

?It is entirely possible that Nigerian workers and masses are being ripped off by those who control the levers of economic power in Nigeria, which explains why the domestic public refineries may not immediately be allowed to come on stream, the NLC concluded.

HURIWA which cited publicly available data, stated that as a consequence of the incessant and significant increase in price of Premium Motor Spirit and other products, a total of six oil & Gas companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) generated N2.97 trillion revenue in in nine months of 2024.

This represents an increase of 115 per cent increase from N1.39 trillion generated in corresponding period of 2023.

Profit before tax stood at N626.3billion, about 384 per cent increase from N129.43 billion reported in nine months of 2023.

The companies; Conoil Plc, Seplat Energy Plc, Aradel Holdings, Eterna Plc, Total energies Marketing Nigeria Plc and MRS Oil Nigeria Plc have witnessed huge turnaround on the back of federal government reforms aimed at stimulating growth, increase transparency, and attract investment in the oil and gas sector.

HURIWA recalled that analysis of the firms? unaudited results for the 9 months ended September 30, 2024, showed that Seplat Energy declared N366.7 billion profit before tax, about 483.4 per cent increase from N62.85 billion reported in corresponding period of 2023, while Aradel Holdings, a newly listed oil & gas company posted N191.5 billion profit before tax in nine months of 2024, about 412 per cent increase from N37.37billion reported in nine months of 2023.

In the same vein, Totalenergies announced N41.85 billion profit before tax in nine months of 2024, up by 151.8 per cent from N16.62 billion reported in nine months of 2023 while Conoil Plc declared N15.24 billion profit before tax in nine months of 2024, representing an increase of 38 per cent from N11.05billion in nine months of 2023.

In addition, MRS reported N9.37 billion profit before tax in nine months of 2024, 89 per cent growth from N4.96 billion in nine months of 2023, while Eterna migrated from a loss of N3.4billion in nine months of 2023 to N1.68billion in nine months of 2024.

Meanwhile, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the average retail price paid by consumers for PMS for September 2024 was N1030.46, indicating a 64.55 per cent increase compared to the value recorded in September 2023 (N626.21).

HURIWA recalled that even the publicly funded NBS also revealed that the average retail price of Automotive Gas Oil (Diesel) paid by consumers increased by 59.28 per cent on a year-on-year basis from a lower cost of N890.80 per liter recorded in the corresponding month of last year (i.e., September 2023) to a higher cost of N1418.83 per liter in September 2024.

?The average retail price for refilling a 5kg Cylinder of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) increased by 4.19per cent on a month-on-month basis from N6,430.02 recorded in August 2024 to N6,699.63 in September 2024. On a year-on year basis, this increased by 59.90per cent from N4,189.96 in September 2023,? NBS added.

Also, the reforms reflected on stock prices and corporate earnings of listed oil & gas companies on the NGX amid foreign exchange losses.

Banks, HURIWA insisted, are not left out in this coordinated plot by government officials and their friends in the private sector to make life brutish, short and miserable for millions of Nigerians through incessant hikes in the pump price of petrol because as publicly available data informed Nigerians that banks are set to increase funding of petrol importation to N3.5 trillion as more marketers move to import the product amidst the push for the exclusivity of local production and supply led by Dangote Refinery.

It was learnt that banks are now receiving more loan requests for funding petroleum products imports with the head of oil and gas in a tier-1 bank saying about N250 billion single request came to his desk last week, the third in the last month.

It Is estimated the banking industry funding of petrol imports to be around N3.5 trillion before the end of this year.

HURIWA therefore wondered how anyone wants Nigerians to continue to uphold the falsehood that the regular upward reviews of the pump price of petrol was for public good when it is so unambiguous that the objective is to financially make few friends of top government officials or their friends and affiliates in the private sector to become overwhelmingly wealthy whereas more and more Nigerians become absolutely impoverished and hungry.

?The federal government must stop implementing crude measures that unleash hardships on Nigerians whilst at the same time making very few people and companies too rich and prosperous from the hunger, starvation and untimely deaths of Nigerians. Government must restore the dignity and the respectable value of the Naira to stop the downward collapse of the value of the National currency.?

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