President Bola Tinubu on Thursday restated his administration’s total commitment to eliminating all forms of abuses in the petroleum industry’s downstream sub-sector as a strategic step towards ensuring regular supply of products at competitive prices in the country.
The President expressed this during his meeting on Wednesday with representatives of major oil marketers’ associations on Wednesday in Abuja, on the way towards constant supply of fuel products in the country.
Tinubu, who captured on the position of the new administration on the fuel subsidy regime as it related to his discussions with the oil marketers on his Twitter page on Thursday afternoon, said that his administration was fully committed to transparent oil market.
He tweeted: “At a meeting yesterday with representatives of major oil marketers’ associations, in the course of the discussions, I emphasized my administration’s total commitment to a competitive, stable and transparent oil market and challenged the marketers to work with the government to ensure regular supply and convenient access to fuel products across the country at the lowest possible price.”
It would be recalled that the President had in his inaugural address on 29 May announced the removal of subsidy payment on petrol, adding that the immediate past administration did not make provisions for subsidy in the 2023 budget beyond June.
Tinubu also on Wednesday directed the National Economic Council (NEC) to begin the process of working on fiscal and other interventions to ameliorate the impact of the subsidy removal on Nigerians.
Based on the discussions with the President, some major oil marketers pledged to donate 100 buses to ease transportation cost problem being faced by average Nigerians
Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, who led some major oil marketers on a courtesy visit to President Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, told State House correspondents after the President’s parley with the marketers, that the marketers came to express their support for the President for his bold decision to end the fuel subsidy regime which, for many years, had remained a waste pipe in the public finance system
He disclosed that the marketers announced their intention to donate 50 to 100 mass transit buses as a way to help the new administration succeed on the initiative, and expressed their hope that others well-meaning corporate bodies can do the same.
