Petrol is a household commodity in Nigeria; Over 40 million liters are used on a daily basis by at least one of three households or businesses in Nigeria. An increase in price therefore has great impact on the savings or profit of virtually every household or business in Nigeria.

If Petrol subsidy removal is to be implemented, Nigerians need answers to the following questions:

1. How Much is to be saved from the subsidy removal?
If Nigerians are to endure the pains of subsidy removal, they need to know how much they are saving for the government in doing this. That's the first step in understanding that the government compared our difficulties to the potential gains before arriving at this decision.


2. Where exactly does government intend to channel these savings?
This is perhaps the most important question the government needs to answer. Nigerians don't wanna read in the news that presidency approved billions of naira housing allowance for ministers after subsidy removal. The Presidency must address the concerns of Nigerians in this regard. We have been lied to severally in the past. For instance, the previous government of Goodluck Jonathan assured Nigerians that it was planning to build at least 3 standard refineries worth 3 billion dollars each, and create millions of jobs in the petrochemical sector, but even after the partial subsidy removal, not even one refinery was built.

3. If this is complete subsidy removal, why then is a benchmark price being set?
One would expect that the FG would allow market forces to determine price if the government has completely removed subsidy. If independent marketers are having a hard time sourcing foreign exchange which is easier for the NNPC who is also part of the importation business, why should they be compelled to sell at a certain price? Will this really end the scarcity or encourage it even at the increased prices?

I hope we get some answers from Mr President soon. God Bless Nigeria.

- SocialMediaMan

cc: lalasticlala, seun