Fuel: Buhari’s unkept promises, failures and bungled subsidy policy - Premium Times
What will be going on in the mind of Seriki Integrity, if he has shame, as he inaugurates the Dangote refinery today after his own failed promises to repair old & build new refineries?
Fuel: Buhari’s unkept promises, failures and bungled subsidy policy - Premium Times
Muhammadu Buhari and his party, All Progressives Congress (APC), repeatedly criticised past governments for failing to solve Nigeria’s perennial petroleum sector problems.
Mr Buhari called for a reduction in the prices of petroleum products amidst efforts by the Goodluck Jonathan government to deregulate prices and end subsidy payments. He said there was no such thing as “subsidy” and dismissed it as a scam used by government officials and their cronies to steal public funds.
When oil prices fell in 2015, the then-opposition leader urged the government to “stop stealing from Nigerians and allow them to enjoy the relief that has come to consumers of petroleum products globally.”
In his response to the fuel scarcity in the country in March 2015, Mr Buhari lambasted past governments and Mr Jonathan for failing to fix refineries and leaving Nigerians at the mercy of fuel imports. He reminded Nigerians that two of the four refineries in the country were built under his watch as petroleum minister in the 1970s.
“The countless man hours that will be spent at petrol stations today, will reduce our productivity as a nation. This should not be so,” Mr Buhari said. “In my time as NNPC chairman and Petroleum Minister in the late 70s, 2 of our 4 refineries were built, and domestic consumption catered for. But over the last several years our refineries have declined, and we are at the mercy of imports.”
Adeola Soetan