Posts Tagged ‘PPPRA’

FUEL SUBSIDY – ACTION AND REACTION

Posted: January 2, 2012 in Blogs from and about school!, DAY 2 DAY, FUN!!!
Tags: , , , ,
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This is what Nigeria woke up to on the 1st of January 2012, our New Years’ gift from our darling President:

PPPRA Announces Formal Removal of Subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS)
Following extensive consultation with stakeholders across the nation, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) wishes to inform all stakeholders of the commencement of formal removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), in accordance with the powers conferred on the agency by the law establishing it, in compliance with Section 7 of PPPRA Act, 2004.

By this announcement, the downstream sub-sector of the petroleum industry is hereby deregulated for PMS. Service providers in the sector are now to procure products and sell same in accordance with the indicative benchmark price to be published forthnightly and posted on the PPPRA website.

Petroleum products marketers are to note that no one will be paid subsidy on PMS discharges after 1st January 2012.

Consumers are assured of adequate supply of quality products at prices that are competitive and non-exploitative and so there is no need for anyone to engage in panic buying or product hoarding.

The PPPRA in conjunction with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) will ensure that consumers are not taken advantage of in any form or in any way.

The DPR will ensure that the interest of the consumer in terms of quality of products is guaranteed at all times and in line with international best practice.

In the coming weeks, the PPPRA will engage stakeholders in further consultation to ensure the continuation of this exercise in a hitch-free manner.

Signed:
Reginald Stanley
Executive Secretary, PPPRA

Ok, in simple English, that press release means that fuel which sold for 65naira on the 31st of December 2011, now goes for 138naira at Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mega stations, and 141naira almost everywhere else. To my mind, this is madness. And for a number of reasons.

1. This country LIVES on fuel. We need fuel to run our generators at home and at work because there is NO electricity.

2. There are no palliative measures in place to cushion the effect of this subsidy removal, nothing at all. Were salaries increased? No. Cost of survival (since we’re not living anymore) reduced? No.

3. This removal should have been done in April 2012, why ‘spring’ it on the people on the 1st of January, and not even have the courtesy to address your people yourself?

4. Where are the funds to be saved from the subsidy going?  Subsidy has been removed from kerosene and diesel for some years now, where did those savings go?

5. Again, priorities have been misplaced. There’s Boko Haram slowly wiping out whole states, unemployment, the growing rate of sexual crimes, epileptic electricity and Mr. President takes decisive action on fuel subsidy?

I decided to sweep Facebook and Twitter, to see the reaction of Nigerians (both at home and in the diaspora) to this gift from Mr. President. They’ll be pictures, quotes, basically reactions from a people who are fed up with an insensitive government.

 

 

And yes, below are a number of comments off Goodluck Jonathan‘s Facebook page following the removal of the fuel subsidy.

End of reactions phase one, with this Facebook status update from my friend Amina Maikori, “Hmmm! No point lighting a match in a dark room to make sure no one accidentally sprinkled any gunpowder on your bicycle…GEJ, make what you will from that, sir.”

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