Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has called on the administration of President Bola Tinubu to provide transparency regarding the reported resurgence of the fuel subsidy programme.
This follows recent claims by Robert Dickerman, CEO of Pinnacle Oil, stating that the Tinubu-led government continues to disburse N1 trillion monthly for petrol subsidy.
In response to this revelation, Falana urged Tinubu to be open about the economic strategy instead of imposing the burden of fuel subsidy elimination on Nigerians.
He also raised concerns about the lack of response from entities like the World Bank, IMF, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) regarding reimbursement for subsidy payments.
During the Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja, Mr. Dickerman disclosed that despite Tinubu’s announcement in 2003 of ending fuel subsidies and total deregulation of petroleum products, a significant subsidy is still in place.
This, according to Dickerman, contributes to the affordable price of petrol and potentially fuels smuggling activities to neighboring countries.
The World Bank, in a report presented last December, alleged a partial return of fuel subsidy, citing an official exchange rate that suggests petrol should be sold at N750 per litre, not the current N650 paid by Nigerians.
Despite these claims, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited has not officially denied the serious allegation of the restoration of fuel subsidy.
With no provision for fuel subsidy in the 2023 and 2024 Appropriation Acts, Falana emphasized the urgency for the federal government to confirm or deny these allegations promptly, putting an end to the opacity surrounding fuel importation from foreign countries.
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