Olufemi said that the Jonathan and Buhari administrations had misled the Nigerians by using the proceeds from the withdrawal of subsidies to refurbish the country refineries.
At the first-year ministerial retreat, President Muhammadu Buhari said in his opening remarks to his cabinet that the federal government was too frail to control the subsidy scheme.
The NUPENG boss, however, said the Jonathan administration had in 2012 promised to take a position in repairing existing refineries with the funds from the negotiated subsidy cuts.
Olufemi said the Buhari government had made an equivalent promise when it came into office in 2015 and altogether eight years later, from 2012, nothing had changed.
Our position has been unchanged right from the beginning, "he said." We do not want to help deregulate imports.
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“Since 2012, what has the govt done to place our refinery right since 2012? In 2011, subsidy payment was N2 trillion-plus. In 2012, it had been N1 trillion-plus. Now it's dropped to about N760 billion. In 2016, there was no subsidy in the least . With the savings, we've made thus far , what have we through with it and what's the state of our refineries?”
The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in March 2019 commissioned Italian firms, Maire Tecnimont and Eni to hold out repairs on the Port Harcourt refinery.
The first phase of the project was to last for 6 months at the value of $50m.
The NNPC promised last year that each one the country’s refineries would be working at full capacity by 2022.
The Group director , Mele Kyari, had in July of 2019, said that the three refineries would be ready before the start of 2023.
The corporation has since shifted the deadline, with several officials stating on different platforms that they hoped to urge all refineries on stream by 2023.
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While Tecnimont is predicted to handle the engineering, procurement and construction of the 2 refineries in Port Harcourt, the corporation has yet to state who would lookout of repairs in Warri and Kaduna.
Olufemi claimed that distribution firms should assess all their customers and show proof of service before seeking higher pay.
“They have deceived us; they need lied to us several times. Are we getting to continue believing them? The argument in 2012 was that they were removing subsidies to extend the local refining capacity which we might be ready to economize to extend local capacity if we reduce subsidy. For eight years, nothing went on .”
Contrary to the federal government’s claim that it might not subsidise petrol prices; however, it's maintained a sort of cost reduction on the retail price of the merchandise through a currency subsidy.
NNPC is Nigeria’s primary source of exchange . The company takes dollars at source to meet the country's fuel needs.
With the refineries idle, through an immediate selling and direct purchasing contract, the company trades the country's national allocation of 445,000 barrels per day for refined petrol.
By this suggests , NNPC has been the only importer of the merchandise since 2017, meaning there's no competitive marketplace for petrol actually .
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Explaining why organised labour’s intention to start a strike to protest electricity tariff increase for patrons receiving Twelve hours of power and above, Olufemi said that the distribution companies had not invested enough to demand a pay rise per kilowatt-hour.
"He said," It's convenient for the buyer to place a strain on him. those that bought these assets from the federal were alleged to have the technical competence and financial muscle, and that they are alleged to have done due diligence, and that they have failed at delivering of these . Why should the masses buy their mistakes?”
Before seeking higher pay, Olufemi said the distribution companies should meter all their customers and display proof of service.
“In our electricity industry, it seems like if you're getting to the gasoline station together with your car, you've got to bring your fuel pump,” he said. “They should meter all their customers and show that they're providing service before asking us to pay more.”
The industry experts have asked the Nigerian government to ease the burden on electricity customers by denominating the pricing of gas sold within the Nigerian market in naira.
This, they say, would help power generating companies to scale back their cost of production.
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