… HAILS BUHARI FOR DELAY IN SUBSIDY REMOVAL
The Inter-Party Advisory Council has expressed deep worry over what it described the lack of accountability and transparency in the management of the nation’s oil and gas resources.
The National Chairman, Engr. Yabagi Yusuf Sani, said in a statement on Thursday that IPAC was piqued by the lack of accurate data and information due to a flawed process of metering in the sector.
He said that the observed inadequacies
and lack of transparency has cost the nation several billions of Dollars and indeed N3 trillion per annum.
Sani called on the President to declare a state of emergency in the nation’s oil sector as a deliberate step to stop the theft of the oil and gas resources running into billions of Dollars.
He said, “The Council expressed grave concern over lack of concerted efforts by Government at addressing the perennial issues of lack of accountability, transparency and good governance in the management of the Oil and Gas Sector of the Nigerian economy for decades.
“There is the issue of lack of credibility in the data and information from the sector due to unreliable and in most cases non metering infrastructure at the critical nodes in the production and supply value chain in the Sector resulting in huge revenue leakages of several billions of dollars annually.
“As a way out of the quagmire, IPAC is suggesting, among other panacea, a declaration of a state of emergency in the nation’s oil sector aimed at waging a frontal war against the intricate web of corruption and rapacious theft of the nation’s oil, woven over the years by a tiny cabal of Nigerians in league with equally unscrupulous, crooked international cartels.
“According to an official report of the NNPC in 2019, Nigeria lost about 200, 000 barrels of crude daily to thieves. The same agency said the figure dropped to 150, 000 barrels in its report on the subject for 2021.
“Going by very conservative estimates, each of the figures would each amount to over three trillion Naira that the country is annually losing to criminals in the oil sector.” He added
However, the IPAC leader commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the very wise political decision to shift forward by eighteen months the commencement date for the withdrawal of the Federal Government subsidy on petroleum products domestically consumed.”
According to Sani, the earlier scheduled time of June, 2022 for the removal of subsidies was inconceivable in view of the prevailing economic, social and political currents in the country.
He said that the harsh backlash of economic down turn and the adverse effects of increase in prices of commodities would readily have aggravated the already tough situation in the country.
He stressed that IPAC was happy with the President’s decision to put the subsidy removal on hold until after the 2023 elections.
He stated though ‘IPAC is of the position that postponing the oil subsidy by whatever length of time, critically, is tantamount to postponing the doomsday.’