Oil and gas expert, Chuks Emeka spoke against the backdrop of the Nigerian il and gas downstream industry and how possible it is to reinstate subsidy in the Nigerian system as well as the inefficiencies that plague the industry.
The Federal government on Tuesday came out to say that they would not be increasing the fuel price for the third time this year despite the rise in the Naira to Dollar ratio.
Tope Ajayi, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, released the statement after G made on X, formerly as Twitter saying, “There is no plan to reintroduce any form of fuel subsidy. There is no condition to support any increase in prices at this time. President Tinubu is convinced based on information before him that we can maintain current pricing without reversing the current deregulation policy by swiftly cleaning up existing inefficiencies within the midstream and downstream Petroleum sector.”
In an ARISE NEWS interview on Wednesday, Chuks Emeka stated that it was disheartening to see the government make such abnormal policies in the government without functional refineries in the nation.
“it’s a disgrace. I don’t know how an oil producing nation like Nigeria producing crude oil, cannot manage a functional refinery. We have four refineries in this country. Two in Port Harcourt, one in Mowe and another in kaduna. Yet none are working.
“There’s something NNPC is not telling us, there’s something they’ve not been able to explain to Nigerians yet. We are not the only country in the world producing oil.
“if I were to advise the government I would first tell them to find out the problem and fraud that is going on in the oil and gas sector before you remove the subsidy. Subsidy is in every sector.
“the question I want to ask Nigeria and Nigeians Government and Nigerians is that are our refineries not working? We’re talking about subsidies because our refineries are not working. Why aren’t they working? We’re supposed to have at least one functional refinery. The last time we built a refinery was in 1989. Since 1989 until date we have not built one, not even a modular refinery.
That means there is sabotage going on, there are people wo=ho want to make sure that the oil and gas sector does not work well because they are benefiting from it. That’s what I’ve understood in this whole game. “
President of Nigeria Bola Ahmed Tinubu promised to labour unions that the Port Harcourt refinery would be up and running by December 2023.
Concerning this Mr. Chuks Emeka stated, “These are the lies we’ve been hearing for the past twenty years. We’ve been hearing it from past governments. They’ve been saying the same thing, with all sorts of allocations of budgetary expenses that have been pumped into the maintenance of the refinery. Tell me what happened to the funds?”
“I’ve been to these refineries and most of them are not going to work. Most of them are obsolete. Most of the valves are just obsolete and they are just using paint to cover it up.”
The Government had promised to rid the downstream sector of inefficiencies to which Mr. Emeka stated, “There are a lot of inefficiencies in the oil and gas industry. There are so many manipulations going on.”
“The dynamics of buying fuel and bringing it down to the refineries to be sold is not rocket science. It’s people that make it complex. There’s nothing to it. The reason we are having all these stories is because we are just trying to cover up the truth.”
Glamour Adah
Follow us on:
