Fuel Scarcity Crisis: Senators Accuse Colleagues of Conniving with NNPC
The Nigerian Senators on Wednesday, January 17, took turns to condemn the report of the Senate committee on Petroleum for not including the issue of fuel subsidy.
The Senators alleged that the report was ‘doctored’ by the management of the Nigeria National Petroleum Commission (NNPC).
The chairman of the committee, Kabir Marafa, Zamfara-APC, was particularly blamed for not including the issue of fuel subsidy which they alleged the executive is paying for without National Assembly’s approval.
In the report, Marafa proposed five measures as long term solutions for the lingering fuel scarcity crisis.
He said: “As part of short term measures, the federal government should consider special foreign exchange concession to oil marketers to enable them commence importation of fuel and sell at approved N145 per litre.
“Two, federal government should consider giving waiver on payment of Nigerian Ports Authority, NIMASA and the Customs service and others to make the landing cost lower. This is because it is established beyond reasonable doubt that the landing cost of PMS today is N171 and government has fixed it at N145 per litre. Therefore, for us to move forward, we have to find a way of bringing the landing cost down.”
“Three, we are going to operate two price regimes. Marketers selling at deregulated rate while NNPC sell at the approved N145. But there is the fear that NNPC will be selling to the marketers who will sell at higher prices.”
“Four, federal government should consider having special tax holiday to oil marketers as a way of subsidising imports.”
“Five is complete deregulation. The federal government should consider deregulating the PMS, AGO and kerosene market.”
Atai Aidoko Ali, who was allegedly sacked by the appeal court, was the first to comment on the report. He alleged that the report was written by NNPC and not the committee.
He said: “This is the first time I won’t be commending a committee of this Senate for doing a job,” the lawmaker, who was sacked by the appeal court but still continues to hold on to the seat, said “Mr. President, this report from this committee, to me, does not contain the issues, it does not address the problems that made you call this committee to sit. If we are not talking about subsidy, then what are we talking about? This looks like a report of NNPC.”
Nafada Bayero, Gombe-APC, also questioned Senator Marafa on submitting five contradictory recommendations on an issue.
He said: “I have read these recommendations; the only recommendation that may stand is for the federal government to completely deregulate the PMS. That is the only recommendation that will stand. Otherwise, these recommendations as far as I am concerned, look like a report that is imported or that is written by somebody, not from this Senate. If it is a report of this Senate, they can’t bring about five different recommendations on same issue. Mr. President, may I call on this committee to go back and work again and bring a report of its own, not one that was influenced by outsiders.”
Thereafter, Stella Oduah, Anambra-PDP, said the report is ‘unfair’ and ‘biased.’
She said: “This is supposed to be a technical report. Mr. President, this (report) will not stand the test of time. This is unfair report. Very, very unfair and extremely biased report.”
Marafa, attempting to clear the allegations, told his colleagues that the report was only an interim report and that the recommendations were based on the submissions of parties invited to the public hearing.
The Senators were not satisfied by his explanation.
Dino Melaye, Kogi-APC, asked the lawmakers to mandate the executive to refund all money spent on subsidy without National Assembly’s appropriation.
He said: “Mr. President, this report if adopted will only continue to empower the corruption that is already ongoing in the oil sector in this country. What we ought to be debating here is the corruption that is going on in the oil industry, in NNPC and the reason why our oil industry has failed but nothing of such was mentioned in this report. This report rather is energising the corruption that is already ongoing.”
“It is true that marketers may not be able to sell at N145 but is abominable for any government to spend government money without appropriation by the National Assembly. All money that was spent without appropriation should be refunded and approach the Senate for proper appropriation. Mr. President, I am particularly asking the committee to go back, become born again, sit down, do a holy exercise and come up with resolutions.”
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, resolved that the committee should review the report and come up with a final report that should reflects all the views raised by the lawmakers.
Shortly after plenary, Marafa explained why his committee neglected subsidy in the interim report.
He said that the committee was more pre-occupied with knowing the volume of fuel consumed than to establish the amount of subsidy paid and diversions.
He said: “The perspective I am looking at this is that I want to look at the volume of litres. I want to establish to all Nigerians what is the demand of Nigerians. Unless you know that, you can never know what amount of subsidy you are paying.”
“When this committee was called upon, our mandate was to look into the lingering fuel crisis. I stand by my report. What the committee did was the most appropriate. We cannot be talking about N26 subsidy when we don’t even know the volume of fuel we consume. It has been established even before we went into the public hearing that we are back in subsidy regime and we said it in the report. All stakeholders attested to the fact that the landing cost is N171. Do we now go back discussing the same thing?”
It was reported that on Thursday, January 4, the Nigerian Senate committee on downstream petroleum, chaired by Senator Kabiru Marafa, held a 5-hour public hearing to determine the cause of the fuel scarcity in the country that began in December 2017.
The investigative hearing was convened, after a directive by the president of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, to the committee members, to cut short their ongoing recess, embark on oversight visits to petrol stations across the nation, and meet with all stakeholders in the sector.
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