As APC, PDP Clash Over Oil Price Deregulation

• APC, PDP Oil Price Deregulation

Prior to becoming Nigeria’s first citizen in 2015, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had asked the question: “who is subsidising whom?”, to advance his argument against the fuel subsidy regime of the then President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration.

In a widely circulated interview which was aired on October 25, 2011, Buhari wondered why “Nigerian economists and the people in government” spoke about subsidising petroleum products “when in fact, Nigeria owns the oil.”

He had argued that the only cost Nigerians ought to bear was the cost of transportation from oil well to the refinery and the cost at the pump.

Well, the table has since turned.

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Aside from the fact that the Buhari regime has “fully deregulated” the downstream petroleum sector, it is also campaigning vigorously to get Nigerians to buy into it.

Arguments for and against the removal of fuel subsidies have always been a sore point in relations between Nigerians and successive administrations since Africa’s most populous nation embraced the International Monetary Fund-induced Structural Adjustment Programme, introduced by the then military dictator, General Ibrahim Babangida, in 1986.

The Executive Director of a civil society organisation, Citizens Action for Good Governance, Nazir Galadanchi, while lamenting the seemingly unending increases in the pump price of petrol, said, “Under President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007), the pump price of petrol was increased six times and virtually all workers’ unions went on endless strikes; federal universities were closed for the longest period in our country’s history.”

Interestingly, these protests did not end agitations for the deregulation of the sector and removal of the fuel subsidy regime.

On December 26, 2011, the Jonathan administration organised a town hall meeting in Lagos where its leading lights such as the then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who later became the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido; and the Minister of Finance/Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, advanced reasons for the removal of oil subsidy which they noted was denying Nigerians the much needed funds for development.

Sanusi had in his presentation argued that for the fact that Nigeria had lost its refining capacity indicated that it didn’t make sense for the country to continue to fix prices for a commodity it had no control over its production.

Nigeria, he said, was at the time the only oil-exporting nation that did not enjoy the benefits of rising oil prices in the global market because gains which ought to have been used to improve infrastructure, simply found their way into the pockets of a privileged few under the guise of subsidy payments.

When on January 1, 2012, Jonathan shocked Nigerians with an unusual New Year gift by announcing an increase in the pump price of petrol from N65 a litre to N141, civil society groups and members of the opposition quickly found a common ground.

In days, the #Occupy Nigeria Movement was quickly born. The protesters succeeded in pressuring the government to reduce the price to N97 per litre.

Many analysts agreed that apart from the discontent of citizens with the worsening security situation in the country, the well-coordinated national protests marked the beginning of the end of the Jonathan administration.

The Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechuku, who was part of the then opposition said what happened in 2012 was spontaneous because Nigerians had had enough of the annual blackmail by a cabal within the oil sector to pay for services not rendered.

He said “Yes over the years, we of the APC and Mr President since his first outing in 1984 opposed the removal of fuel subsidy or in real terms, deregulation.

“However, on this fuel subsidy saga, we have reached the cliff-hanger axis-a kind of between the devil and deep blue sea.

Therefore, the Federal Government’s best option is to deregulate.

The difference, to be honest, was our transparency in managing the fuel value chain.

We should not forget that Mr President managed the Petroleum Trust Fund of the 90s, an outcome of the deregulation of that era.

“He will manage this situation better. The paradox of the scenario of those opposed to fuel subsidy removal is that these are the same people opposed to more borrowing.

On one hand, they castigate Mr President for over-borrowing, and on the other hand, they want him to borrow to subsidise fuel.”

However, this enthusiasm is not shared by the leading opposition political party, the Peoples Democratic Party.

According to the National Publicity Secretary, PDP, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, the decision of the Buhari-led regime to increase the pump price of petrol at a time Nigerians are struggling to recover from the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic is the most insensitive decision any government worth its name can take.

He told Sunday PUNCH that it had since become clear to all discerning Nigerians that the president and his ruling APC took pleasure in the sufferings of Nigerians after allegedly deceiving many to give them power that they were ill prepared for.

He said “Without being told, most Nigerians now know that this regime deceived them with fake promises just to get to power.

The increase in the price of fuel from N87 where the PDP left it to the current N148 per litre despite the endemic corruption which has become the signature tune of this regime is to say the least heart-wrenching.

“The APC promised Nigerians cheaper fuel prices, they have delivered unbelievable increases; they promised that the United States dollar would be equal to N1 but what is the exchange rate today?

Are Nigerians paying less for electricity today? The APC propaganda machine has run out of ideas! Nigerians now know better!”

Source: PUNCH