By Abdullahi M. Gulloma
Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari said yesterday the federal government would handle the issue of subsidies on petroleum products with care.
Speaking after receiving a briefing from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other agencies in the oil and gas sector, Buhari said he would carefully review all the submissions he had received on the need to remove the subsidies.
He said: “I have received many literatures on the need to remove subsidies, but much of it has no depth. When you touch the price of petroleum products that have the effect of triggering price rises on transportation, food and rents. That is for those who earn salaries, but there are many who are jobless and will be affected by it.”
The President said lack of security, sabotage, vandalism, corruption and mismanagement, not necessarily subsidies, are the most serious problems of the country’s oil and gas industry.
He promised to deal decisively with all identified problems of the oil and gas sector, stressing that “we have to go back to the good old days of transparency and accountability.”
Buhari directed the NNPC to review existing agreements for the swapping of crude oil for refined products with a view to injecting more honesty and transparency into the process to reduce costs.
He also asked the NNPC management to do more to improve the supply of liquefied petroleum gas (cooking gas).