By Ogenyi Ogenyi,Uyo
A Civil Rights group, Centre for Human Rights and Accountability Network (CHRAN) has called on the Federal Government to support Modular Refineries and the manufacturing of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles to mitigate the hardship of fuel subsidy removal in Nigeria.
Chairman of CHRAN in Akwa Ibom , Mr Franklyn Isong told a press conference in Uyo yesterday that if the FG would allow local refiners to purchase crude oil with Naira not Dollars and encourage them to refine locally, there would be abundance of petroleum products which would eventually crash the price.
Isong regretted that despite the abundance of crude oil in Nigeria, price of petroleum products has gone astronomical with its effect on cost of commodities adding that President Bola Tinubu should as a matter of urgency, look into the plight of Nigerians.
The chairman further regretted that much was being spent on Turn Around Maintenance(TAM) of moribund refineries and workers who are dormant being paid monthly even as he urged the Federal government to publish the list of those who received the subsidy from 1999 till the date it was removed.
He, also urged the organized labour not to allow the implementation of the rumoured impending increase in fuel price saying they should lead a mass protest if the FG goes ahead to increase the price even as he promised that CHRAN would follow noting that ‘protest’ is the only language Nigerian government understands.
According to him, “we have crude oil in this country, there is no basis for Nigerians to be experiencing petroleum price increase. We are experiencing this because we don’t refine our products we depend on foreign exchange rate, rise of dollar against Naira free fall.
“CHRAN wants the President, Bola Tinubu to fix our refineries, support modular refineries to refine products locally. If they are able to buy the crude oil with Naira and not in dollar and refine, there will be availability of products and fall in price.
“The President should also ensure activation of Compressed Natural Gas vehicles inorder to address the issue of incessant petroleum price increase. Having removed the subsidy you cannot continue to talk about market forces or allow the fate of Nigerians to be hanging on determination of market forces of what you don’t produce.”
Isong also called on the President to constitute his cabinet wondering why a president after 60 days in office is yet to set up his cabinet even after them being cleared by the National Assembly.
He attributed the problems facing Nigeria to lack of people to advise the president.
“More than 60 days in office, the president has no cabinet in place? 45 of the nominees have been cleared so what is keeping them from being sworn in? As at now we dont know who is the Minister of petroleum resources, or Minister of labour.
“Who will address the issue of fuel increase, insecurity? and so on. Let his cabinet advise him on the issue of economy, insecurity etc. Robbery is on the increase, poverty is high because of one harsh policy of federal government.” He said.
On Niger coup, CHRAN boss urged ECOWAS leaders to use more of diplomacy, negotiation to resolve the issue even as he identified bad leadership in African countries as the cause of coup in the countries.
“We want ECOWAS leaders to know that what is encouraging coup in African countries is bad leadership, the only way is for ECOWAS leaders to begin to promote good governance, rule of law, accountability, by so doing, they will discourage coup plotters.
“While we condemn the coup in Niger, we are calling on ECOWAS leaders to look inwards and promote good governance in their localities.” Isong said.
