For Chief Timipre Sylva, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, petrol subsidy is detrimental to Nigeria’s economy, such that it makes no sense.
Corroborating a claim by oil marketers that Nigeria’s inability to give a definite figure on the amount of petrol it consumes daily was due to the continued smuggling of the commodity out of the country, Sylva revealed that the subsidy has been in favour of criminals more.
In an interview with his media team, led by his Senior Adviser, Media and Communications, Horatius Egua, the minister noted that petrol subsidy “is more or less fueling a criminal economy.
“The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) imports the products, and nobody knows the exact destination of the products at the end of the day.
“The imported products come to Nigeria, and from there filters out of our borders to neighbouring countries.
“So, as a country, we cannot tell the exact volume of petroleum products that we consume on a daily basis. All we have been doing is to assume the level of consumption over a period and work with that.”
Lamenting the uncertainty that surrounds petrol consumption on a daily basis as a result of smuggling, Sylva expressed a belief that the NNPC probably had a better answer to this, stressing that “personally, I don’t.”
“I have said this publicly before that I don’t know the figure. When I assumed office, initially I was told that our daily consumption was 66 million litres.
“Then, when fuel prices increased from N145 to N162, the consumption figure temporarily fell to about 40 something million litres per day, because the arbitrage opportunity reduced.
“Then the value of the naira dropped again, and the number went up again to over 60 million litres. I am told the figure sometimes rises to as high as 90 or over 100 million litres. I don’t know how that happens.
“At this rate, I have said if anyone is looking at a criminal enterprise, look no further than the fuel subsidy.”
