The Federal Government has been asked to withdraw the N500 billion naira it is rolling out as palliative for fuel subsidy removal and deploy same to build refineries across the country.
The Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Chief Victor Umeh gave the advice at the National Assembly during a debate on the proposed palliatives by the Bola Tinubu-led administration.
Recall that President Tinubu had proposed the N500 billion among other plans, as palliatives to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal, which has seen the price of fuel go up to about N620 per litre in parts of the country.
According to Umeh, a breakdown of the N500 billion palliative, which amounts to N8000 per month to 12 million families, is grossly insufficient to cushion the biting effect of the government policy on Nigerians, hence should not stand.
He argued that this small sum would essentially evaporate before families even leave their homes, making it impossible to sustain a livelihood.
The senator decried what he called the government’s inability to have a plan to address the problem caused by the fuel subsidy removal, before announcing the removal of the subsidy.
Expressing solidarity with the removal of fuel subsidy, Umeh however queried the rationale behind removing the subsidy when there is no concrete plan to address the issues that led to the subsidy payment in the first place.
“This lack of any sustainable plan has resulted in the hike in the pump price of fuel, further causing more hardship for Nigerians.
“In 2018, I opposed the oil subsidy regime here in plenary, not because we don’t want to pay but because there must be a way of tackling our problems from the roots.
“Today, the Tinubu has removed the subsidy and Nigeria has been caught napping.
“The Tinubu has had cause now to approve six companies to bring in refined petroleum products but that’s no solution to the problem, because we are resorting to importation again.
“If we had started since 2018, we would have a refinery today working and be refining our own petroleum products by ourselves.
“So, N500 billion palliative is good but it wont go anywhere,” he said.
Umeh insisted that the only sustainable solution to the hike in fuel pump price is to build more refineries with the N500 billion, so that the country can stop importation of fuel that comes from crude oil, which is its natural resource.
“We are already enduring the pain and Nigerians will understand when they see that the N500 billion is deployed to building refineries. And everybody will endure the pain.
“Within four years maximum, a new refinery should be up here and we refine our products and crash the price of these products. That’s the only way to solve the problem on a sustainable basis.
“There’s nothing like palliatives when you continue to import these products.
“We started with N537, it went to N617 and some places it is N637. How are you going to bring the price down without producing these products at your backyard? That’s not possible!” Umeh posited.
