Otega Ogra, senior special assistant to President Bola
Tinubu on digital and new media, says Atiku Abubakar’s plan to subsidise crude
for local refineries is a policy that “failed” when it was previously
implemented under former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.
Ogra was reacting to the proposal by Atiku, former
vice-president, for a production subsidy for local refineries.
“Excuse me, sir. Nigeria already tried your
production-subsidy to local refineries idea while you were Vice President. We
know the shambolic results of that production subsidy. You know it too,” the
media aide wrote in an X post on Friday.
Ogra said by 2002, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company
(NNPC) Limited had increased domestic crude allocation to 445,000 barrels per
day (bpd), supplied to local refineries “on preferential terms”.
He said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated the
revenue forgone from the arrangement at 3.2 percent of gross domestic product
(GDP) in 2002 and 2.9 percent in 2003.
“What did Nigerians get for it?” Ogra said, citing refinery
utilisation figures which he attributed to the NNPC.
“Refinery utilisation collapsed,” he said.
According to Ogra, Warri refinery’s utilisation fell to
14.27 percent in 2003 and 9.1 percent in 2004, while Kaduna refinery recorded
15.96 percent and 26 percent, respectively.
He said Port Harcourt refinery’s utilisation also dropped
from 60.73 percent in 2001 to 31.04 percent in 2004, adding that the
preferential crude arrangement did not translate to lower petrol prices.
“Meanwhile, price of petrol more than tripled by 2004 and
nearly quadrupled by the time you left office despite your production subsidy
to local refiners,” he said.
The presidential aide said the policy was subsequently
discontinued by the Obasanjo administration.
“On October 9, 2003, your same administration cancelled the
discount itself through Presidential directive PRES/158,” Ogra said.
“President Obasanjo ordered NNPC to pay full international
price for refinery crude. Your production subsidy was tried, failed and
scrapped, with you as Vice President.”
Ogra challenged Atiku to show evidence that the policy
worked before proposing it again.
“So… before selling Nigerians this failed production subsidy
policy again, answer one simple question,” he said.
“I know there are many Nigerians who were too young to know
what was happening then but if you may tell them, where is the evidence that it
worked the first time?
“It’s still the same theory you practiced then, and we
haven’t changed country yet.
“One thing we already have, are the failed results of that
experiment, Alhaji”.
Atiku, who is the presidential candidate of the African
Democratic Congress (ADC), had said the proposed policy would support domestic
refining rather than subsidise imported petrol.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com