Tinubu: Fuel Subsidy Removal Benefitting Ordinary Nigerians

.Promises to publish how subsidy savings are utilised

.Optimistic nation’s four moribund refineries will be back on stream and make profit

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

President Bola Tinubu on Thursday disclosed that the fuel subsidy removal, which he announced upon his inauguration as President on May 29, 2023, actually benefitted ordinary Nigerians. Speaking while receiving in audience the newly elected leadership of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) at the State House, Abuja, Tinubu explained that the fuel subsidy removal is actually benefitting ordinary Nigerians.

He gave an assurance that his government will soon publish details of how the savings from the fuel subsidy withdrawal are being utilised and cited regular salary payments and funding for major road projects as some benefits of the policy.
Tinubu said: “Fuel subsidy is gone for the benefit of our great country. I will soon publish the utilization of what it is. I listen to people, they say common man and all of that. Who are the people receiving the salaries in the local government administration? Are they not common men and women receiving salary regularly at the state level, are they not common men and women? The ordinary people receiving salary at the federal government regularly, and it affects all the market women around us, including your wives.

“But I’m glad you have seen the effect of being able to find funding for long-term projects; Lagos-Ibadan Road, Abuja-Kaduna highway, Abuja-Kano, and Sokoto-Badagry highways and many other road network, it’s all for the good of us and the good of our economy and the safety of our people.”
The President also expressed optimism that the nation’s four moribund refineries will be back to operation, stressing, however, that it must be commercially viable.
According to Tinubu: “The refineries that you mentioned is going to come back to work. We’re just building a very firm reset and structural reworking of the economic of it. Ordinary flame and smoke of refinery doesn’t mean that it’s working until it’s profitable and yield the value for which it is built.

“I’ve accepted the asset and liability of my predecessors, no matter what has happened in the years past, it’s my responsibility now as the president to fix it, make it work for the largest common value of our population. I take responsibility for that, and I’m going to do it.”
The President also told NUPENG leadership to impress it upon their members to pass benefits from CNG on to commuters so that it can go round the citizenry.

His words: “Equally, the introduction of compressed natural gas. Well, I will appeal to you, we will do more. We will encourage you, but ask your drivers to let it trickle to the commuters too, because whatever benefit that is coming from CNG is going to the pocket of truck owners. It’s not spreading as fast as I would like it, but it should spread.”
Earlier, NUPENG President, Comrade Akanni Oladiti, appealed to President Tinubu to check casualisation of workers in the oil industry in the country.

Oladiti, who described the trend as unwholesome, expressed concern that efforts to make the oil companies involved, particularly in the upstream oil and gas sector to shelve the practice have been constantly rebuffed.
His words:”Your Excellency, our relationship with the International Oil Companies and the indigenous players in the upstream sector has been very cordial. However, we want to seize this opportunity to bring to your attention an unhealthy trend we have been trying to correct with little to no success. It is the casualisation of workers, particularly in the upstream sector.
“For a sector that is strategic and taken as the economic jugular of the nation, NUPENG and its counterpart, the PENGASSAN have been tolerating these unwholesome practices, knowing full well the enormous disruption that any industrial actions could cause to the economy.

“We also do not want to be seen to be hostile to the Minister of Labour, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, who has been very supportive and operates an open-door policy in his relationship with our Union.
“We have engaged the management of some of the affected companies without results. Mr. President, we urge you to use your good offices to stop casualisation of workers in our sector.”
While commending the federal government for its rehabilitation and dualisation of highways to ease movement of petroleum trucks, Oladiti also appealed to the President to see to rescucitate the Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC) depots nationwide as well as the four refineries in the country.

According to him, injecting life into the depots would complement the ongoing positive step to revive the ailing refineries.
Said he:” We’ve seen real progress in the rehabilitation of federal highways, making
journeys safer for our tanker drivers.
“Mr. President, your administration has turned federal highways into massive construction sites. We must not fail to mention the ongoing, unprecedented projects, 750- kilometer, six lane Lagos – Coastal Highway and the 1,068- kilometer Sokoto- Badagry Superhighway that will traverse seven states in the
country.

“For our members, a good road is the difference between arriving home safely and never arriving at all. Every stretch of highway rehabilitated or constructed, means fewer accidents, fewer spillages,
fewer lives lost, and lesser stress for the men behind the wheel. Mr. President, that is a reform our members feel in their bones, and for it we say thank you.

“We also want to commend your administration’s move to revive the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries through partnership with Chinese firms.
Your Excellency, we want to humbly request that the same energy and drive to inject life back to the refineries be extended to the decaying Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC) depots of
country.

“We strongly recommend they can be handed over to private investors to manage under an equity arrangement.”
The NUPENG boss also urged President Tinubu to promote grassroots development by ensuring that state governors comply with the Supreme Court judgment on financial autonomy for the local governments