I disagree with Dangote on complete subsidy removal — Okupe

A former Presidential spokesperson, Dr Doyin Okupe, on Tuesday said he was not in agreement with Alhaji Aliko Dangote’s call for the complete removal of subsidy.

Okupe expressed the position in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) in Lagos.

NAN reports that Dangote, owner of the 650,000 barrels per day crude oil refinery in Lagos, had in an interview with Bloomberg urged the Federal Government to end fuel subsidy completely.

Speaking during the 26-minute interview in New York on Monday, Dangote said the time was right to end subsidy, which, he said, had cost the country trillions of naira.

Reacting, Okupe said: “With utmost respect, I disagree with Aliko Dangote on his suggestion that the government should completely end subsidy now.

“Petrol is the economic oxygen of Nigerians, whether rich or poor. This is not the situation in other countries of the world.”

The former Director-General of Peter Obi’s Presidential Campaign said that with the coming up of local refineries, some level of succour should be given to Nigerians.

According to him, with the allocation of 450,000 barrels a day for local consumption, Nigeria can combine the advantage of local production with local consumption and determine the price to sell crude to local refineries.

“We can use opportunities that these local refineries avail us, ensuring adequate fuel supply with the dedicated or allocated daily crude oil for local consumption, which is outside OPEC quota.

“So, whatever we do with it is our internal affairs, it is a way of providing some level of comfort.

“We can sell this daily crude oil allocation for local consumption cheaply to determine the average pump price of PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) in the country.

“For instance, the price of Nigerian crude per barrel is $77, we can decide to sell to Dangote refinery at $35 or $37 per barrel, thereby having made adjustments of processing fees and profit margin, the pump price of petroleum can actually come down to N500 or N600 per litre.

“This will bring a major relief, comfort and succour to the masses,” he said.

Okupe said that ending the importation of petroleum products would reduce the tension and pressure on foreign exchange demand by 40 per cent.

“This will give economic oxygen to Nigerian people, encouraging enterprises and local businesses because we all in Nigeria, rich and poor, depend on petrol as an economic oxygen.

“Every nation has a sector where it stands behind the people,” he added.

Okupe described President Bola Tinubu administration’s bold step on fuel subsidy as excellent and commendable.

He said that the President had done a great job by courageously removing subsidies and eliminating multiple exchange rates.

According to him, the President’s reforms have taken root in the economic system.

“It is something very brave that no other previous administrations have dared to go through it.

“What the President did was actively like biting the bullets and he has been courageous enough to persevere and persist through it.

“Having done it for more than a year, my feeling and belief is that we have made enough gains, and because these refineries are upstream, we can consolidate on those gains and release the pressure on the masses a little bit.

“Fortune has played in our hands by the coming upstream of the Dangote refinery, Port Harcourt refinery and other refineries that will follow,” he said.