Nasir el-Rufai and others told us the government had reintroduced fuel subsidy:

el-rufai go against him party be dat

Blazetrailer:
But this current "strategist" has worsened the situation. If Buhari was bad, this Tinubu is a slowpoke. Taking out subsidy loukdy ans returning it surreptitously devaluing the currency and cluekess about what to do next, spending scarce resources of frivolities. He is the worst

Tinubu is a monster, and the longer he stays in government, the harder it is for Nigeria.

nairalanda1:
The fact of the matter is, we got here because we had the wrong idea about fuel ....we thought we could make it cheap to 'help the poor'

It's helped the poor....at the expense of our domestic refining capacity.

Like I say, if you want working refineries and an end to scarcity, let the refineries and the marketers sell fuel at a profit....so that there would be enough money to plow back into the refining capacity.

Abusing me and calling me names does not change that fact. We have tried subsidy for over 4 decades. It's not working.

And fixing the refineries is not going to solve the problem. The best the refineries can do is produce fuel at a cost above N1000 per liter. Subsides would force them to operate at a loss.

But most of us think that cheap fuel costs nothing.

You aint thinking like human.

ivandragon:


You keep refusing to acknowledge that before subsidy should go, there needs to be a sanitisation of the entire process.

If your argument over the years is to be followed, we would soon be buying PMS at N5k per litre with scarcity and you would still be advocating for more increases.

When PMS was N89, you said it should be N140. When it got to N150, you said it should be N180. Even when it got to N200+, you said it should be like N300. Now it is N1k, you are still advocating for increases under the guise of profit making.

Can't you see that price increases do not solve the problem?

His argument is actually sound on its own.
He advocates for total removal of fuel subsidy(not arbitrary increase in price).
Whenever the government(not the sellers) says the official price of an item is X Naira, then such
item is being subsidised regardless of the set price.

Whether or not the total subsidy removal will yield the projected investment is another case entirely.

As to the sanitisation of the process, I suppose you mean actively fighting corruption?
That's a pipe dream generally as we have learnt over the years.
A government can posture that it is sanitizing a sector, but when you dig deeper into the figures,
you will find very little improvement.

The only practical way to sanitize the oil sector is to provide the right incentive and government
handing off as much control as possible to profit-makers.

Or we could miraculously get a benevolent dictator with the power of death and long prison terms
that would not be biased on ethnic basis. How likely to find such?

You may argue that many other countries oil sectors are efficiently managed by their government,
but Nigeria is different as the average Nigerian think stealing from the government is a god-given right
and only fools don't do it when they get an opportunity.

ivolt:

His argument is actually sound on its own.
He advocates for total removal of fuel subsidy(not arbitrary increase in price).
Whenever the government(not the sellers) says the official price of an item is X Naira, then such
item is being subsidised regardless of the set price.

Whether or not the total subsidy removal will yield the projected investment is another case entirely.

As to the sanitisation of the process, I suppose you mean actively fighting corruption?
That's a pipe dream generally as we have learnt over the years.
A government can posture that it is sanitizing a sector, but when you dig deeper into the figures,
you will find very little improvement.

The only practical way to sanitize the oil sector is to provide the right incentive and government
handing off as much control as possible to profit-makers.

Or we could miraculously get a benevolent dictator with the power of death and long prison terms
that would not be biased on ethnic basis. How likely to find such?

You may argue that many other countries oil sectors are efficiently managed by their government,
but Nigeria is different as the average Nigerian think stealing from the government is a god-given right
and only fools don't do it when they get an opportunity.

It is not sound if the peculiarities of the socio-economic situation of the country is not taken into consideration.

Can't you also see that the very position you are taking clearly shows that subsidy is not the problem?

What even necessitated pms subsidy in the first place? Was it not mismanagement of the economy? So is the economy now properly managed?

Anyway, most Nigerians have chosen to endure bad governance, so the mismanagement continues.

Can we please stop the One buhari is better nonsense.
They're the same.

ivandragon:


It is not sound if the peculiarities of the socio-economic situation of the country is not taken into consideration.

When it comes to money and finance, peculiarities do not matter.
You either have it or you don't.

Can't you also see that the very position you are taking clearly shows that subsidy is not the problem?

Subsidy is not a problem if you can afford it, otherwise it becomes an unshakable burden especially
when it has been around for decades.

What even necessitated pms subsidy in the first place? Was it not mismanagement of the economy? So is the economy now properly managed?

Anyway, most Nigerians have chosen to endure bad governance, so the mismanagement continues.

Subsidy was necessitated by increase in crude price in the 1970s and the commensurate oil boom
Nigeria experienced.
The guys in charge then, the military who are generally bad administrators suddenly found themselves
swimming in money and wanting to also placate the public, the rest they say is history.
We started subsidy because the government felt it could afford it then.

We had no oil subsidy when we had no oil and much poorer.

The truth is regardless of the country, governments who can afford general energy subsidy always do
in order to be in the good book of the public.

Only when the state's account is in red, such as those observed during the Greece economic crisis in 2015
does the government dare tamper with long-enjoyed public subsidies and even then there were nationwide protests and multiple
government resignations.

It is my belief that a country should subsidize what it can sustainably subsidize.
Whether or not Nigeria can afford petrol subsidy indefinitely is another issue entirely.

And Tinubu's chaotic disastrous dance around the subsidy issue without
first understanding the industry leave much to be desired.

ivolt:

When it comes to money and finance, peculiarities do not matter.
You either have it or you don't.


Subsidy is not a problem if you can afford it, otherwise it becomes an unshakable burden especially
when it has been around for decades.


Subsidy was necessitated by increase in crude price in the 1970s and the commensurate oil boom
Nigeria experienced.
The guys in charge then, the military who are generally bad administrators suddenly found themselves
swimming in money and wanting to also placate the public, the rest they say is history.
We started subsidy because the government felt it could afford it then.

We had no oil subsidy when we had no oil and much poorer.

The truth is regardless of the country, governments who can afford general energy subsidy always do
in order to be in the good book of the public.

Only when the state's account is in red, such as those observed during the Greece economic crisis in 2015
does the government dare tamper with long-enjoyed public subsidies and even then there were nationwide protests and multiple
government resignations.

It is my belief that a country should subsidize what it can sustainably subsidize.
Whether or not Nigeria can afford petrol subsidy indefinitely is another issue entirely.

And Tinubu's chaotic disastrous dance around the subsidy issue without
first understanding the industry leave much to be desired.

You are running around in circles. I don't get why some of you like to argue for arguing sake.

So how has what you have written invalidate my own position of mismanagement and corruption as the reason why pms subsidies seem unsustainable?

US provides subsidies on fossil fuels of which PMS is one (derivative from crude oil).

https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-proposals-to-reduce-fossil-fuel-subsidies-january-2024#:~:text=In%202022%2C%20fossil%20fuel%20subsidies,to%20the%20International%20Monetary%20Fund.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dipkabhambhani/2024/01/08/fossil-fuel-could-power-energy-transition-through-biden-subsidies/

China provides subsidies

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/environment/global-fuel-subsidies-08252023061051.html

https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/global-fossil-fuel-subsidies-rise-despite-calls-phase-out-2023-11-23/

Countries in the EU provide gas subsidies...

https://caneurope.org/briefing-eu-fossil-fuel-subsidies-on-the-rise-again/

So what exactly is your point when I say that pms subsidies in themselves are not the problem, but it is important to address certain inefficiencies and unwholesome practices so as to know the true position of things?

Even if subsidies must go, fine. But have the socio-economic factors that made them unsustainable being addressed?

If you feel, removing subsidies is the be all and end all, fine. It is your perogative to have that opinion.

okoroemeka:
who will muster?are you the minister of petroleum?or maybe the refineries director,it seems you are still living in an utopian world if you think Nigeria could have functional refineries and a new one,you don't even know the depths of corruption in this country,those refineries are been sabotaged by the same people that owe and charged to repair it,the NNPC,now tell me how it will work,this people are making so much money from importation of this things that they see local production as a threat,dangote is another example

The future of Nigeria depends on oil refineries when green, renewable energies and electric cars are taking over the world? This is sure sign that Nigeria is a futureless country.

CodeTemplarr:
Refining and subsidy have no link. Someone is refining the one we are currently buying and subsidising unhindered somewhere so stop saying subsidy was maintained at the expense of local refinery. It is a case of refinery refining and selling at intl price to whoever wishes to subsidize the crude products.
Let me ask you, now that the refineries(govt ones) are dormant, aren't we paying workers salaries and spending more trying to fix them? That tells any honest person that the problem is the people there and not the subsidy itself. Govt can decide to sell petrol at N100 if it is locally refined and crude locally sourced. It will only lead to shortfall in crude sales revenue. They are already paying salaries of the idle refiners and spending more than Dangote to fix refineries not as big as his.

The lies about intl mafia being part of the conspiracy to keep local refineries down holds no water because Dangote built a bigger and far more complex one from scratch.
Same corruption that is killing refining and crude industry is same one ravaging every other sector of the economy.

A litre of petrol that cost over N1,000 to refine will be selling at N100 without subsidy, what brand of self-deception are you using?

ivandragon:


It is not sound if the peculiarities of the socio-economic situation of the country is not taken into consideration.

Can't you also see that the very position you are taking clearly shows that subsidy is not the problem?

What even necessitated pms subsidy in the first place? Was it not mismanagement of the economy? So is the economy now properly managed?

Anyway, most Nigerians have chosen to endure bad governance, so the mismanagement continues.

PMS is subsidized because is under the care of government through NNPCL and government don't do business to make profit.

Gboss247:
A litre of petrol that cost over N1,000 to refine will be selling at N100 without subsidy, what brand of self-deception are you using?

That's for people buying crude and not a govt that has unfettered access to crude oil. I already stated it will reflect as a shortfall in crude oil revenues so stop trying to be unnecessarily argumentative.

Gboss247:
PMS is subsidized because is under the care of government through NNPCL and government don't do business to make profit.

So why was the government vehemently denying that it was subsidising PMS?

Does that excuse the government from sanitising the subsidy value chain?

I still don't get how some of you see something that is obviously wrong and try to justify it.

CodeTemplarr:
That's for people buying crude and not a govt that has unfettered access to crude oil. I already stated it will reflect as a shortfall in crude oil revenues so stop trying to be unnecessarily argumentative.

According you, the government will have zero cost of crude production simply because they government?

Gboss247:
According you, the government will have zero cost of crude production simply because they government?

Can you highlight that same way you quoted me the first time?
Quote the bold or get lost, fool.