‘Diesel Subsidy, Not Petrol, Needed To Transform Northern Economy’

Former chairman, Africa Petroleum, (AP) Alhaji Yusuf Garba Ali, has declared that subsidy on diesel oil, not petrol, is what is needed in the northern part of the country to boost industries and revive the economy.

In an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP in Kano, the former AP chairman admitted that the removal of diesel subsidy by the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo remained the destructive policy that is hampering industrialisation in the northern part of the country.

Ali said; “Unfortunately, because northern Nigerians were perhaps ignorant or lacked the knowledge, Obasanjo’s administration removed subsidy on diesel oil and that is what industries require to run their factories, and to move their goods to the South and Eastern part of the country.”

Ali added that the federal government introduced a policy of ‘even development’ through which it instructed that there should be a uniform price for petroleum oil across the country, not unmindful of the fact that to achieve that, power must be available to those sectors.

Ali who expressed concern that the cost of running those factories will be the same with factories in the north and those near the sea, rhetorically asked on why the Obasanjo’s government decided to have a uniform price of petrol oil.

He said the people of the northern part of Nigeria requires more diesel than petrol because of production and transportation of goods.

Ali said the issue of subsidy occurred when somebody brings petrol to Lagos at $1 per liter when the naira exchanged at N150 per dollar and now it has jumped to N230 and the government said he must sell at N97 per liter, and the government must pay the difference to oil traders.

He said that Nigerians will continue to pay more to purchase petrol as naira continue to depreciate against the dollar, saying the solution is not fuel subsidy removal or paying subsidy to oil marketers, its imperative that Nigeria’s refineries must be made to work.

Another agonising trend Ali there was no recruitment in Nigeria’s oil refineries for the last four years and trained and qualified staff continue retire from the job.

He described the development as precarious as there were no trained staff to man the oil refineries if they are to be turn around and there wasn’t any authority for the committee to asked on why there was no recruitment at that time.

“I can tell Nigerians until the time we finish the committee we have not seen the Petroleum minister, Diezanie Alison more than once, until the day we submitted our report to President Jonathan”, he said.

Ali finally advocated for smaller refineries in the country and the Port Harcout and Warri refineries must resume work at capacity and for Kaduna refinery that was using imported crude oil should also be made to work and can produces bitumen for road construction and many more things it can produce.

 

‘Diesel Subsidy, Not Petrol, Needed To Transform Northern Economy’