Okupe fights Dangote with call for complete abolition of fuel subsidy

A former spokesman for the president, Dr Doyin Okupe, said on Tuesday he disagreed with Aliko Dangote’s call for a complete elimination of fuel subsidies.

Okupe expressed this position in an interview with NAN in Lagos.

DAILY POST reported that Dangote, owner of the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery, in an interview with Bloomberg called on the Nigerian government to completely end fuel subsidies.

During the 26-minute interview in New York on Monday, Dangote said it was time to end the subsidies, which he said had cost the country trillions of naira.

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

“Petrol is the economic oxygen of Nigerians, whether they are 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 the advent of local refineries should provide some relief to Nigerians.

According to him, with the allocation of 450,000 barrels per day for local consumption, Nigeria can combine the benefits of local production with local consumption and set the price for selling crude oil to local refineries.

“We can take advantage of the opportunities that these local refineries offer us by ensuring adequate fuel supply with the allocated daily crude oil for local consumption, which falls outside the OPEC quota.

“Whatever we do with it, it’s our internal affair, it’s a way to provide a certain level of comfort.

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

“For example, the price of Nigerian crude oil per barrel is $77, we can decide to sell it to Dangote refinery at $35 or $37 per barrel. By making adjustments to processing costs and profit margin, the pump price of crude oil can come down to N500 or N600 per litre.

“This will bring great relief, comfort and help to the masses,” he said.