By Seun Ibiyemi
The Chief Executive Officer, Centurion Security Limited, Capt John Ojikutu (retd) has said that the Federal Government pays subsidy claims using arbitrary data.
This is coming after the price of Premium Motor Spirit popularly called petrol has risen by 81 per cent in the past three years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics reports.
In a chat with Nigerian NewsDirect, he said that subsidy is the biggest scam in the history of this country, second only to the operations of the NNPC.
Ojikutu said, “No one has accurate data of the volume of petrol Nigeria uses. We pay subsidy claims using arbitrary data – the height of leadership ineptitude.
“Rather than take up the responsibility to conduct proper forensic audit and obtain credible data, thereby curbing the inflated figures, the FG wants to bring the entire country to pay for their irresponsibility by ending subsidy entirely.
“Subsidy was removed for DPK and AGO, and till date no one can point out how the nation has profited from that action.
“Concerns that proceeds from the removal of subsidy may go the way of its predecessors are genuine, and in fact true.”
He added that subsidy must stay by all means.
“If government judiciously utilises the available funds in their keeps we would have adequate funds to do a lot of we want to.
“Buhari bailed out states, paid subsidy claims, paid retired/forgotten FG workers, and initiated projects when oil was trading at $25/barrel and exchange rate hovering around $1=N400. What justification do we have to stop subsidy now that oil trades for $85/barrel?
“Subsidy is perhaps the only thing Nigerians benefit from their country at the expense of government and must be protected.”
Recall that NBS data showed that between February 2020 and February 2023, the price of fuel rose from N145.41/litre to N263.76/litre.
The NBS report stated that the average retail price paid by consumers for Premium Motor Spirit in February 2023 was N263.76, indicating a 54.76 per cent increase when compared to the value recorded in February 2022 (N170.42).
Likewise, comparing the average price with the previous month (January 2023), the average retail price increased by 2.58 per cent from N257.12.
At the onset of 2020, the average price paid by consumers for petrol increased by 0.08 per cent year-on-year and month-on-month by 0.03 per cent to N145.41 in February 2020 from N145.37 in January 2020, according to the NBS.
At the time, the Federal Government had paid about N134bn as fuel subsidy payment.
States with the highest average price of petrol were Abia (N146.87), Adamawa (N146.67) and Niger (N146.57). States with the lowest average price of premium motor spirit were Abuja (N143.67), Enugu (N144.50) and Lagos (N144.73) in 2020.
In the last three years, fuel subsidy has gone from N134bn in 2020 to N1.43tn in 2021, N4.39tn in 2022 and a projected N3.63tn by June of 2023. This led to a total of N5.83tn in subsidy payments, excluding the figures for 2023.
The Federal Government has continued to restate plans to remove fuel subsidy with a plan to deregulate the oil market by June this year.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said last week Nigeria had borrowed $800m from World Bank for the purpose of palliatives for Nigerians ahead fuel subsidy rmeival.
A September 2022 report by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Initiative disclosed Nigeria had spent N13.7tn ($74.386bn) on fuel subsidies between 2005 and 2022.
However, there are fears that the removal of fuel subsidy might be drastic for the populace as the countdown to the June 2023 date for subsidy removal inches closer.