I have been bothered about some aspects of the recent new pricing regime released by PPPRA. These are some of the questions I have asked myself over and over and which are begging for answers.

This is an open letter to the government of the day. I hope they put out answers to these posers in the coming days.

1. First of all, why were/are headlines (and everyone, including me initially) screaming "Subsidy Removal"? This is clearly not subsidy removal as there has been none for a while. Why is government not correcting this wrong notion? This is just a case of a new pricing regime for our dear PMS.

2. Does this new regime mean the NNPC won't be involved in importing fuel any longer?

3. If NNPC will still continue their own importation quota, will the NNPC also source for dollars from the blackmarket?

4. If NNPC will still continue their own importation quota, what will this quota be and how much will they retail to Nigerians?

5. Considering the FX differentiation between black market rates and official CBN rates, if NNPC continues to import some quota at CBN rates, won't that create a new cabal like the old Subsidy cabal that cleaned Nigerians out?

6. Supposing NNPC imports their quota and retails PMS, won't they cheat Nigerians with the lower limit of N135 they have set, due to huge FX differentiation between black market rates and official CBN rates?

7. In fact, the amount NNPC should be selling will be about N86.5 which is the old pricing regime and which was without subsidy. If they will not sell at that rate, we will like to know why.

8 . As admitted in the FAQ attached below, the dollar scarcity caused the fuel shortages of almost 5 months that crippled businesses. Why did no one in government address the case as that? Nigerians were confused on what was really happening and the explanations received were different from different FG sources.

9. Still on dollar scarcity, why has CBN pledged $b for Dangote and care less about the other 180 million Nigerians? Are they getting their priorities right?

10. Imported PMS wasn't on the list of the 41 banned imported items. With the new development, is the FG not subtly including it on the list? Like every other items on the list, black market dollars should be sourced to import it.

11. The welfare of Nigerians is number one. Why were other things not put in place before the hike? Mass transit and the likes. One can argue that there is no money presently. However, since the budget has been passed, why did the FG not wait to stimulate the economy first before the new fuel pricing regime? Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun has repeatedly talked about a certain quarterly $350billion to be injected shortly into the economy and targeted towards the critical infrastructural sector. Why wasn't this done first? Wouldn't that have made the hike easier to bear?

12. Finally, does it mean that as crude oil prices rise, the retail price of PMS will also keep rising? The calculation used the present average crude oil prices. When crude oil rises to $70 per barrel, how much will Nigerians be paying for PMS?

These are my submissions. I sincerely wish this government well and hope they get things right. But we need answers to some grey areas.

Thanks.

Cc: Lalasticlala

Good questions?

These needed to be addressed. Especially the NNPC parts.