₦airaland Forum

Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke spoke on [the president's] behalf at the opening of the 35th edition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Annual International Conference and Exhibition (NAICE) in Abuja.

"Significant national income has been expended so far on price regulation of refined products in the domestic market.

"This significant drain in the national resources has limited government ability to provide a sustainable basis for private sector downstream investment and development."

"Nigeria’s national energy policy recognises the multi-dimensional nature of optimal energy resources management, at the same time, it addresses diverse issues such as energy efficiency, environmental stewardship, research and development, as well as energy pricing and financing along the entire oil and gas value chain."

"The overall thrust of our energy policy is in the optimal utilisation of the nation’s energy resource mix for sustainable development through increase in the pace of oil and gas exploration, development and production, internal sufficiency in petroleum products and export of value added excess as well as liberalisation and deregulation of the downstream sector and progressively privatise the oil and gas industry to bring in private sector efficiency that will engender sustainability,"

"These policy objectives are now actively being pursued in an integrated manner to give impetus to this vital sector of our national economy while modernising its laws to create an appropriate institutional framework for the implementation of the policy."

"Government is also focusing on addressing the considerable environmental challenges in the Niger Delta through the adoption of environmentally- friendly technologies in our exploration and production activities because every nation with an important coastline must adopt best practices in its oil and gas activities to safeguard aquatic ecology of the coastline which many of our communities are dependent on, the recent BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is an important warning signal to Nigeria and lessons learnt from the incident must be shared especially through professional bodies like the SPE. "

u can imagine, by John Ikya

Brace up Nigeria!

A household that cultivates and produces cassava but has to buy and pay for garri just like any other household that doesn't produce cassava will be a shameless, lazy and cursed household.

It is to the shame of Nigeria's leaders that Singapore without any type of natural oil deposit, refines and exports petroleum products and here we are watching Nigerians wait endlessly under the sun, flogged and humiliated by soldiers just to buy kerosene that we should have excess of and sometimes the waiting is all in vain.

The day we have a President that will sit down here(not interested in going to Washington to pose for picture with Obama), decide to work(not on tenure elongation and needless constitutional amendments), give out jobs(that impact directly on the needs of the suffering masses), directly supervise those projects and demand results and refuse excuses then all these shameless cries about the over flogged 'subsidy' rant will stop.

Making our refineries work is made to look as if it's an unachievable goal and yet other nations without crude have refineries that are always in top shape.
Nigerians must resist any attempt to remove subsidy. The Federal Governmet should cut the wastes that running itself vents on the nation and stop targeting the only succor that the masses should have for being in a nation blessed with crude oil and natural gas deposits.

They tell us of subsidy and yet can expend a wooping N7Billion on a needless 50th anniversary to celebrate decades of underdevelopment, unchecked massive lootIng, collapsed infrastructure and inept leadership. They talk of subsidy and yet paid out an average of N200million each to members of the National Assembly just for reporting for 'work' at Abuja. They tell us of subsidy and yet last years budget was hardly implemented and yet the money is nowhere to be found.

Who's deceiving who?

It is poor quality leadership and not subsidy that is draining the economy.