Tinubu jettisons market forces, says current petrol pump prices will remain
By Emma Ogbuehi
Common sense may have finally prevailed as President Bola Tinubu, on Tuesday, jettisoned the idea of petrol prices being determined solely by market forces.
The last time the pump price per litre of petrol was increased from over N500 to N617, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, said market forces were responsible for the rising pump prices of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) known as petrol.
Kyari, who spoke after a meeting with Vice President Kashim Shettima at Aso Rock, Abuja, on July 18, said, “What I know is that the market forces will regulate the market; prices will go down sometimes, sometimes it will go up, but there will be stability of supply. I am also assuring Nigerians that this is the best way to go forward so that we can adjust prices.”
But barely one month later, President Tinubu seem to have thrown Kyari under the bus, when he assured Nigerians that the current prices will remain, market forces or not.
Tinubu said his administration is already taking steps that would curb the increase of fuel prices in the country without having to reverse the nation’s decision to exit the subsidy regime.
His assurances were relayed to journalists at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Tuesday by his special adviser on media and publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, who disclosed that the president is taking steps to clean up inefficiencies within the petroleum industry.
It would be recalled that the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) had threatened to embark on an indefinite nationwide strike if the prices of PMS increased above what they currently are.
The threat, therefore, triggered rumours that fuel prices might be increased again.
Reacting to the threat by the organized Labour, the president noted that such a move was premature, urging all stakeholders to be circumspect in reacting to the current situation, even as he appealed for calm from all citizens.
READ ALSO: Religious war brews in Kwara as Islamic clerics warn that Isese Festival can never hold in Ilorin
According to Ngelale, “The official position is that there is no increase in prices at this time and that Mr. President is convinced based on the information before him that we can maintain current pricing without reversing our deregulation policy by swiftly cleaning up existing inefficiencies within the midstream and downstream Petroleum sector.”
Speaking further, the presidential spokesman said, “The president wishes, first, to state that it is incumbent upon all stakeholders in the country to hold their peace. We have heard, very recently, from the organized Labour movement in the country with respect to their most recent threat.
“We believe that the threat was premature and that there is a need on all sides to ensure that fact-finding and diligence is done on what the current state of the downstream and midstream petroleum industry is before any threats or conclusions are arrived at or issued.
“Secondly, Mr President wishes to assure Nigerians following the announcement by the NNPC limited just yesterday, that there will be no increase in the pump price of premium motor spirit anywhere in the country. We repeat, the President affirms that there will be no increase in the pump price of premium motor spirit.
“We also wish to affirm that the President is determined to maintain competitive tension within all sub-sectors of the petroleum industry, he is determined to ensure that our policy drawn up, as well as policy implemented, follows the queue that there will not be any single one entity dominating the market. The market has been deregulated. It has been liberalized and we are moving forward in that direction without looking back.
“The President also wishes to affirm that there are presently inefficiencies within the midstream and downstream petroleum sub-sectors that once very swiftly addressed and cleaned up, will ensure that we can maintain prices where they are without having to resort to a reversal of this administration’s deregulation policy in the petroleum industry.”