The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and Civil Society Organisation have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to remove oil subsidy before handing over power to the incoming government.
This was disclosed in a communique signed by the NANS’ National Secretary General, Usman Baba Kankia, and endorsed by its officials, including the president, Umar Usman Barambu, the Senate President, Comrade Attah Felix Nnalue, as well as zonal leasers; after a one-day seminar/town hall sensitization workshop on NNPC Ltd’s operations organized by the nation’s oil giant in Abuja.
In the communique made available to newsmen in Abuja on Thursday, the NANS leadership emphatically noted: “We therefore call on Mr President, Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR), to, in the public interest, remove fuel subsidy before handing over power to the next government.”
“NANS and the National Coalition of Civil Society Organization in Nigeria demand for the removal of fuel subsidy,” they further stressed.
They added that their call was in tandem with the president’s worries that petrol subsidy regime had been a recurring and controversial public policy issue in the country since the early eighties and its current fiscal impact had clearly shown that the policy is unsustainable.
According to the communique, the workshop held at the NAF Conference Centre, Abuja, which focused on understanding the operations of the New NNPC LTD in Nigeria was attended by representatives from the NNPCL, NANS and Civil Society groups.
Over 1,000 participants drawn from students fold and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) also participated in the event.
The Public Affairs Department of the NNPCL was led by the Group Geneneral Manager, Mallam Garba Deen Muhammad.
The workshop was also aimed at sensitizing the public on the NEW NNPC LTD in improving and enhancing governance and accountability for quality and accessible operations to the public since its transformation from NNPC to NNPC LTD.
Participants were enlightened about how Nigerians can benefit from the new operations of NNPCL under the new management, the roles of the public and relevant stakeholders.
According to the communique, the participants came up with a five-point observation: NNPL Ltd is open to all for business and partnership; the NNPC LTD is no longer a government-owned organization but public own company; the NNPC LTD has made pms available to marketers for distribution national wide; marketers are responsible for the scarcity the nation has witnessed in recent times; fuel subsidy is a sabotage to the economy.
They therefore recommended that citizens should have a culture of reporting deficiencies, failures and anomalies in the NNPC Ltd; the system through the media and other communication channels should push for proper implementation of NNPC Ltd policies; CSOs should partner and encourage the operations to demand accountability from relevant authorities; government should harmonize the role of quality supply of petroleum products and inspecting agencies for effective and consistent monitoring and evaluation of the activities of oil marketers; existing committees should be strengthened and co-opted into advocacy to promote with immediate effect the removal of fuel subsidy.
