Presidency reacts to plan of further increment in fuel price

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has responded to rumours of an impending hike in the price of premium motor spirit as a result of currency market volatility by stating that there are currently no such preparations in place.

On Tuesday at the Presidential Villa, the President’s media aide Ajuri Ngelale addressed concerns that the deregulation strategy would be altered despite widespread support for it.

Ngelale stated, “The official position is that there is no increase in prices at this time and that Mr. President is convinced, based on the information before him, that we can maintain current pricing without reversing our deregulation policy by swiftly cleaning up existing inefficiencies within the midstream and downstream petroleum sector.”

If the Federal Government dared accept an upward review of pump prices for fuel items, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had vowed on Monday that it would initiate a statewide strike without prior warning, as reported by Infostride News.

NLC’s move came after oil marketers issued warnings of a likely price increase due to currency market instability, where the US dollar was exchanging for N945.

However, PMS consumption in the country has decreased from 67 million litres per day to 46 million litres per day, as stated by the Presidency.

It further claimed that the problem in the downstream oil sector today was caused in part by massive wrongdoing within the Central Bank of Nigeria under the troubled former Governor, Godwin Emefiele.

The White House press secretary has stated that the President is committed to preserving competitiveness across the entire petroleum industry.

Ngelale claims that Tinubu’s goal is to prevent market monopolisation through the development and implementation of policies.

This morning I have the honour of meeting with His Excellency President Bola Tinubu,” he said. As we talked, a crisis involving the country’s gasoline supply and demand was unfolding. The President would like to emphasise, first, that everyone with an interest in the country should remain calm. The country’s organised labour movement just made its most recent threat known to us.

We think the threat was untimely, and that all parties should check the facts about the status of the downstream and midstream petroleum business before drawing any firm judgements or issuing any threats.

“Secondly, Mr. President wishes to assure Nigerians that, contrary to yesterday’s declaration by the NNPC Limited, the pump price of petroleum motor spirit will not be increased anywhere in the country. The President has once again guaranteed that there will be no hike in the retail price of petrol.

We also want to reaffirm the President’s commitment to preserving healthy levels of competition across the entire petroleum industry. He’s dead-set on making sure that no single company or organisation dominates the market, and that principle informs both our policymaking and policy implementation.

The Nigerian presidency has urged Nigerians to keep moving forward without stopping to look back now that the market has been liberalised and deregularized.

Although he acknowledged inefficiencies in the petroleum industry’s midstream and downstream segments, he was confident that the government would act swiftly to address these issues and clean up the industry so that we can keep prices stable without rolling back the current administration’s deregulation efforts.

“I wish at this juncture to also provide a set of graphics which the President has authorised me to share with Nigerians that otherwise would be confidential,” Ngelale continued. The NNPCL provided Mr. President with these visuals.

The President has graciously approved the graphics for public release today; they show the current price of refined petroleum motor spirit at the pump in each of the West African nations bordering us; I’ll just name some as examples. I know you will be showing these graphics to your audiences.

Today, the pump price in Senegal is N1,273, in Guinea it is N1,075, in Côte d’Ivoire it is N1,048, in Mali it is N1,113, and in the Central African Republic it is N1,414; in Nigeria, the price ranges from N568 to N630.

In the West African region, we are currently the most inexpensive purchasing state. No nation offers cheaper than N700 per litre.

This, then, is the setting. Consumption of PMS in the country dropped immediately from 67 million litres per day to 46 million litres per day as of June 1, the day Mr. President took office and our deregulation strategy went into effect. The results can be seen.

However, this does indicate that we are not yet at the end of the road. The path from the shadows into the light is not yet entirely clear. And we beg the people of Nigeria for their patience. And as we have said from the start, we will be honest and forthright with Nigerians.

According to the authors, “we are ready to show you exactly what it is that our nation is facing with respect to the illiquidity in the market in terms of foreign exchange as a result of what is now known to have been a gross mismanagement of the Central Bank of Nigeria over the course of several years preceding this time.”