Former Labour Party (LP) Chieftain, Chief Doyin Okupe, has voiced his disagreement with the Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote’s recommendation of the complete removal of fuel subsidy in Nigeria.
Okupe who spoke during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos said, “Petrol is the economic oxygen of Nigerians, whether rich or poor.
It would be recalled that Dangote, owner of the 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery in Lagos, had urged the Federal Government to end the subsidy during a 26-minute interview with Bloomberg in New York on Monday, citing the trillions of naira lost to subsidy over the years. This is not the situation in other countries of the world.”
He suggested that the country could sell crude oil allocated for local consumption cheaply to help control the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
Okupe commended President Bola Tinubu’s administration for its bold stance on fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate reforms.
However, he emphasized that with local refineries coming online, the government should ease the pressure on the masses.
He stated, “The President has done a great job by courageously removing subsidies and eliminating multiple exchange rates.
However, with the upstream operations of refineries like Dangote’s, there is an opportunity to consolidate on these gains and reduce the burden on citizens.”
Okupe also pointed out that the presence of the Dangote refinery, alongside the Port Harcourt refinery and others, could play a pivotal role in bringing relief to Nigerians.
