Recall that on Tuesday 18th July 2023, the price per liter of premium motor spirit (popularly known as petrol) rose to N617 per litre at various outlets of the NNPCL in the FCT and other parts of the country.
The development comes months after the total deregulation of the oil sector by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who announced the removal of subsidy on premium motor spirit during his Inaugural address on May 29th 2023. He justified the action as necessary because the subsidy regime had become an impediment to Nigeria’s growth and development. The announcement brought about an immediate and sharp upward review in the pump price of petroleum nationwide.
The current petrol price regime has undoubtedly brought about hardship as commuters and local transport operators left to bear the brunt. The cost of transportation has since doubled across city center and is likely to significantly affect price of commodities in the market going forward.
In a reaction to this development, a Coalition of the Civil Society Group led my Alhaji Umar Farouk Lawal has called for calm despite the harsh economic realities, stressing that the Government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is doing everything possible to make sure that there is stability in the price of petroleum in the country.
He made this disclosure on Thursday 20th July 2023 in Abuja the nation’s capital while adding his voice to the ongoing discourse about the challenges the new petrol price regime portends for Nigerians. According to Alhaji Farouk “Though we cannot deny the fact that global market price and cost of importation and distribution also contributed to the fluctuating price of petroleum in the country”.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR has set the ball rolling on getting our refineries working again by calling for immediate mobilisation back to our refineries and we can remember he promise atleast one of our refineries will start working by the end of this year and we know him as the man of action, as such, we passionately call for calm and endurance amongst the citizenry, as it is evident that behind every hardship comes ease and this is just temporal one, we assure you that succor is on the pipeline”.
Alhaji Farouk called on the constituted Federal Government’s Committee on Minimum Wage as a matter of urgency speed up their work, while calling on government to ensure that all other palliative measures be swiftly put in place to cushion the effect of the Increment of fuel price which inturn has led to increase in all cost of living in Nigeria, adding that he believes that government is taking rightful steps towards the betterment of the country.
Nigeria Star News 