Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele has aired his view on fuel price increase after removal of subsidy and asked Nigerians to pray that refineries in the country do no work.
Oyedele spoke at The Platform’s Independence Anniversary event, held in Lagos on Monday.
According to him, the National Assembly said the country has spent over N10 trillion on the country’s refineries, yet they do not work
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He said inefficiencies in the management of the refineries might bring about the worst situation should Nigerian refineries produce petroleum.
“Nigerians would say if only our refineries were working, then we’ll be fine. Nothing can be farther from the truth than that.
“In fact, Nigerians should come together and say please make sure that our refineries don’t work. We should sell them.
“If Nigerian refineries process crude oil, unless we deal with our inefficiency, one litre of petrol will be the most expensive in the world.
“You would have succeeded in replacing the subsidy at the pump with subsidy of the refineries,” he added.
“The National Assembly said we have spent over N10tn maintaining our refineries even when they have not produced anything,” he said.
Indeed, in August 2023, the National Assembly announced that it would probe the alleged N11.3 trillion expenditure by the Federal Government on Nigeria’s refineries’ turn-around maintenance between 2010 and 2020.
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According to the House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Public Accounts, there is concern over the deplorable state of Nigeria’s refineries despite the significant amount of money spent on their maintenance over the past decade.
He emphasized that there should be consequences for wasteful spending.
Meanwhile, the Buhari administration kickstarted a process of another round of refinery rehabilitation for the Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries which are still ongoing under the Tinubu administration, and it has been announced that between December 2023 and 2024, all the refineries will be active, this is according to the current Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri.
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