The mouthpiece of the North, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has thrown its weight behind the removal of Subsidy as the only remedy to prevent the persistent fuel Scarcity bedevilling the country.
The Secretary-General of ACF, Murtala Aliyu, made this known in an interview in Kaduna on Wednesday.
The ACF scribe noted that borrowing money to pay for Subsidy is no longer in the interest of Nigerians, saying that the government has been shying away from the issue instead of tackling it.
“We all know that Petrol, diesel, kerosene, and gas are all utilities. Like we buy firewood, pay for water and pay for electricity if we want to use it, we should pay for Petrol too. It will cost transportation and other things, but that is the reality of the situation”.
While noting that if Subsidy is removed, there would be enough resources to provide for security of lives and property of the citizens, education, health care, etc., he expressed strong support for an open market for marketers to do the importation and sell freely.
“I am sure if this is done, the rate will crash because products will be available. And certainly, the issue of price hikes will be over. Let the demand and supply market forces determine the price of goods and services.” He added.
On fuel scarcity, he urged the Management of National Nigerian Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to intensify efforts to ensure the current fuel queues at filling stations across Nigeria disappear.
On the performance of NNPC under Mele Kyari, the ACF Scribe said,” If you’re talking about the performance of the NNPCL or the oil sector generally, I think since the Buhari administration came up, we have had less problem with fuel queues until recently.”
He, therefore, urged the leadership of NNPCL to redeem the good image hitherto achieved in recent years as a company with improved performance and ensure that the issue of long queues in the filling stations are addressed immediately.
Oil discovery in the north ACF Scribe said there is no exciting news about oil discovery in the north because, according to him, “In the first place, the issue of discovering oil should not be a competition matter,but something that the whole country should be happy with.
“I can tell you that if we discovered oil anywhere within the country for any reason, we should all be happy because it’s an additional resource that will help provide more jobs and lead to sustainable growth and development.
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“If there is oil in commercial quantities, it should not be used for export but processed for internal consumption.
“We can have modular refineries to produce the crude oil discovered in Gombe and Bauchi states. And where there is gas, we should use it for energy generation instead of looking at it from the export dimensions. And if it becomes abundant, even our neighbours can now benefit.”
“We in the ACF are not expressing undue excitement about oil discovery in the north.
