I doubt if it is practicable for governors to take over the payment of fuel subsidy. However, I can appreciate the frustrations and worries of the governors. We have continuously argued that a situation in which there is no transparency in the way subsidy is managed is unacceptable. To have the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation be the only importer of petroleum products, the one to tell us how much they imported and the one to tell us what subsidy they have incurred, is clearly not a transparent process. We need to have a transparent process. And I’ll like to state that there was a transparent process on the ground before the Federal Government, in its own political gimmick, said that it had stopped subsidy payments. That was where the problem started. If you claim that there is no subsidy and so you do not go to the National Assembly to appropriate an amount for it and then have the relevant agencies on the ground including the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency to certify what the actual quantities of imports are, as well as the required subsidy, you are definitely going to have recipe for corruption.
And that is what the governors are kicking against. Of course, we can understand the frustration of the governors, but the solution is not to say that governors will now take over the management of subsidy because that will not be transparent enough. It is to return to the structure that was on the ground and ensure that it works in a transparent and verifiable manner. What the governors need to do is to play a role in making that happen. They also need to ensure that appropriate technology is adopted so that there is no ambiguity as to what is actually imported and used across the country. I think there are mechanisms to do this; technologies exist to accomplish this and that is what needs to be done. But to say that you will leave the management of subsidy to state governors, certainly it is not practicable and we are not in support of such a process.
- Chief Indutimi Komonibo (Ex-President, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Bayelsa State chapter)
If they say state governors should take over the payment of fuel subsidies, do not forget that the revenue allocation that comes from the Federation Account is not uniform. So, if governors should take over, that means each state government should now begin to import petroleum products.
That development will bring hardship to the nation. For example, how will the states that are far away from sea ports get their products? It therefore means that it will be more expensive to take products to states such as Borno, Katsina and Sokoto, among others.
It equally means that those states will be spending more of their earnings on subsidies and that means their economies will be negatively affected. For the sake of uniformity, transparency and equity, it is better for the Federal Government to continue to handle the payment of fuel subsidies and not governors.
If governors begin to handle the payment of fuel subsidies, they will disorganise the system and this gives a lot of room for fraud to thrive. Of course, the petroleum products are on the exclusive legislative list, which means only the National Assembly can legislate on matters concerning petroleum products.
On subsidy itself, I am one of those Nigerians who believe that subsidy should be removed and let the petroleum industry be market driven.
The huge money the Federal Government is using to subsidise petroleum products should be channelled towards infrastructure development.
- Alhaji Balarabe Musa (A former governor, old Kaduna State)
I believe that nothing should concern the state governments with the payment of fuel subsidy. I agree that the state governors should not be bothered or meddle in the issue of fuel subsidy.
Even if the payment of fuel subsidy is desirable, the state governments should allow the Federal Government to shoulder this responsibility.
The state governors have a lot of pressing responsibilities on their hands which they ought to attend to. So, they should leave the payment of fuel subsidy where it currently belongs.
Secondly, nobody is sure whether there is fuel subsidy or not or how much is being spent on it. There are so many questions around the issue of fuel subsidy. All these issues must be further investigated to ascertain the truth. Nigerians should not speculate about whether or not there is need for fuel subsidy; unless it has been established professionally.
That is how it goes in the developed countries of the world. That is all I want to say on fuel subsidy for now.
- Mr. Olayinka Sokoya (Secretary, Nigeria Bar Association, Ilesa branch)
Subsidy has been a conduit for monumental fraud in this country. This is because everything about payment of subsidy is shrouded in secrecy. I will not support the idea of allowing states to be in charge of payment of fuel subsidy as this will further promote corruption in this country and will undoubtedly lead to total strangulation of the economy. It is sad that no government has been able to fix our refineries to meet up with our consumption of petroleum products.
Rather than allowing states to be in charge, I think the best thing the government can do is to fix our moribund refineries so as to put an end to the payment, of subsidy. The Federal Government should continue to pay the subsidy since the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is directly under the supervision and control of the Federal Government more importantly, the fact that the President Muhammad Buhari is the minister-in-charge.
If the governors’ move succeeds, it may invariably lead to another fuel scarcity in this country. The governors and every Nigerian should be interested in ensuring transparency with respect to subsidy claims. If the governors are allowed to take over payment of subsidy, that means the refineries will be abandoned. The governors collect security votes from the federation account, yet they have failed to justify the need for such huge amount of money every month.
- Emmanuel Ado (Kaduna-based entrepreneur/ public affairs commentator)
Such a suggestion coming from the governors in the first place is a sign of desperation. They are obviously frustrated by the existing system which we all agree is lacking in transparency. No one can tell you with certainty how many litres of Premium Motor Spirit we consume in Nigeria on a daily basis. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation keeps coming up with figures which for the most part cannot be verified; but they claim huge sums of money as subsidy. We were told when this administration came on board that the subsidy payment regime was a fraud and that it had been discontinued. For us to be having this conversation afresh is unfortunate. We cannot dismiss the suggestions by the governors with a wave of the hand because you have knowledgeable persons as governors. If you have a team made up of governors like the Gombe State Governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo, who was one time Accountant General of the Federation, and his counterpart from Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, who is a chartered accountant, as members, they may do things differently. You can give the idea a trial because the current system is certainly not working and we must find a way to ensure Nigerians get value for their money. The other option, which to me is the most preferred option, is to make our refineries work optimally. We cannot run away from the truth, no matter how bitter. The other option is to make the current system more transparent with the NNPC being more accountable; but the current system is certainly not working.
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