Since President Bola Tinubu announced the abolition of the fuel subsidy regime on Monday, May 29, 2023, the country has been in a state of turmoil as
citizens grapple with the astronomical hike in the price of petroleum products and its attendant consequences.
Furthermore, it was a stark contrast to Nigeria’s position as one of Africa’s largest oil producers, which imports almost all of its refined petroleum products at a significant cost to the government.However, former President Goodluck Jonathan attempted to remove the subsidy in January 2012 but failed due to fierce opposition from the Nigerian labour union, which shut down the country’s economy with overwhelming nationwide protests against the government’s move.
Tinubu’s announcement sparked socio-economic upheaval, with oil marketers immediately raising the price of petroleum products at the pump. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, increased the official pump price of Petroleum Motor Spirit from N195 to 577 per litre in a matter of days.
As transport fares skyrocketed beyond comprehension, the new order stifled social and economic activities in many parts of the country. “Sometimes, I do have emergencies in the hospital, and I don’t have a car. Now, how do you expect me to pay N1,000 to go to work every day? How much is my salary?“Mine is better. Our cleaner and other workers in the organisation automatically stopped coming to work, and there is no need to ask them why. Somebody receiving N50,000 can no longer cope working in the city centre anymore,” she stated.
The COSEYL leader urged the Federal Government to liberalise the petroleum sector as soon as possible in order to attract more investors to build refineries for the production of PMS and other petroleum products. “The truth is that Nigerians need to face reality, and the reality is that you can only give what you have; the economy is bad. It is better for him to take that action than to be talking just to impress Nigerians. It is obvious that we don’t have anything in the country.
“The government is not so irresponsible that they do not have other programmes to cushion the effect. He had said that he was going to make sure that one or two refineries work before the end of this year. Then, maybe subsequently, other things like transportation will be put in place,” he said.
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