The un-sustainable argument for fuel price hike - Nigerian Tribune

By Abiodun Raufu

I heaved a sigh of relief last Sunday when reading through the newspapers, the Minister of State for Energy, Odein Ajumogobia, put paid to the lingering fear that the federal government was about to unleash a fresh fuel price hike on Nigerians. As it is usual with government officials, he blamed the media for misrepresenting him on the issue. But the truth of the matter is that when Ajumogobia disclosed last week that the federal government no longer finds the N70 price of petrol sustainable, given the mounting burden of subsidising the cost of petroleum products for domestic consumption, he sounded like a man who had been sent to test the waters to see how Nigerians will react to the possibility of a new fuel price increase.

I actually don’t know why Ajumogobia is complaining because the media that he wants to make a scapegoat on this issue also quoted him to have said that the price hike will not be immediate and that the federal government will not take a unilateral action on the matter.

But then, what does Ajumogobia expect Nigerians and the media to do when the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) had worked out the arithmetic of the fuel price hike nicely on its website, arriving at N95.27 as the new price for petrol, N111 for diesel and N113.83 for kerosene? That does not look like a mere coincidence. On the contrary, it looked as if the government has completed its homework on the matter and what remains was how to implement it. On the face of it, Ajumogobia’s statement on the issue begins to look like an orchestrated effort to prepare the minds of Nigerians for a price hike. Full Story