A member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Presidential Campaign Council, Adetokunbo Pearse, has said that President Bola Tinubu is just a bookkeeper, describing his economic policies, especially on petrol subsidy removal as a disaster.
Pearse who spoke while featuring on a Channels TV programme, on Monday, said Nigerians desire to know the actual landing cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol.
He said instead of destroying the economy with total subsidy removal, President Tinubu should have thoroughly scrutinised the Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, over the fluctuations in landing cost.
He said, "We should go back to reviewing what is happening in NNPCL. This whole issue has to do with corruption in that industry; unless the President goes there, we will not get the benefit of the oil that is produced in this country.
"The question of the price of oil is what we are talking about. How do we get the price of oil to the point where it is affordable and will not destroy the economy? That is the issue. How do we do that? Go to NNPCL, Mr President, and find out what is going on there.
"The only way to solve a problem and the problem is this, the cost of petrol pump price is too expensive for our economy. Now, how do you bring the price of oil to the point where it is affordable? What do you do? Go to NNPCL and find out the wastage, the inefficiency, and the corruption there, and if you curb that, we will not have this problem, it will be reduced.
"Democracy is a job in progress, the president doesn't know everything. Frankly, I am very disappointed in Tinubu, very disappointed. I thought he understood economics. Now, I have realized he is just a bookkeeper. A bookkeeper is an accountant - he collects money and counts it but to develop a business, to develop an economy takes a business mind.
"Somebody who has run the industry before - employers. Employees understand the give and take of business. Evidently, he (President Tinubu) doesn't know it and he is not listening to advice because what is going on now is a disaster."
He stressed that investigating the NNPC will expose the reality.
“When you go to the NNPCL, you find out that the landing cost is so low to the price that is given. The landing cost at one point was N50 per litre, now it’s about N150 per litre.”
The chieftain of the PDP and Lagos State Coordinator, Atiku/ Okowa Presidential Campaign Support Group, explained that the emergence of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and the repair of local refineries ought to reduce the landing cost of the product in contrast to the position of the NNPCL boss' comment.
“One of the reasons I said we need to go to NNPCL is this: Kyari said on this platform that even when Dangote oil comes fully on board, the price of pump fuel will not reduce – even with the production of oil in Port Harcourt and elsewhere. That man needs to be investigated.
“Of course, if you refine your oil here, the man is already telling us that even when it is refined here, it is still not going to go down and you and I know that if we have our refineries and we are refining the product here, the price should be more competitive,” he argued.
SaharaReporters had reported that President Tinubu in his inaugural address on May 29, 2023, declared that fuel subsidy is gone.
Shortly after, the pump price of fuel rose by about 150% from N210 to about N400 and above. Now the price has skyrocketed to N630 per litre and above.