MUST READ: The Real Cause Of Current Fuel Scarcity In Nigeria | @APCNigeria @ProfOsinbajo
causes of the debilitating fuel scarcity across the
country are the looting of the $12 billion domestic
gas fund under President Goodluck Jonathan's watch,
the Administration's failure to pay fuel subsidy and
the cost of interests on bank loans to oil marketers,
thus making it impossible for them to begin another
round of importation of refined petroleum products.
In a statement issued in Dubai on Tuesday by its
National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,
the party said the PDP and the Jonathan
Administration decided to divert attention from those
problems by accusing the opposition of being
responsible for the
scarcity – a most laughable and irresponsible
statement by a sitting government that is always so
eager to blame everyone but itself for the nation's
woes.
It recalled that the self-styled Coordinating Minister
of the Economy and Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala had, in February, promised to pay all
subsidies owed to the marketers then in the sum of
N264 billion, along with the accrued interest.
APC said, however, that the failure to meet this
obligation has made it impossible for the oil
marketers, who are being owed heavily, to finance
another round of products importation.
"The truth is that this profligate government has run
Nigeria aground, and the oil sector, whether
upstream or downstream, has particularly suffered
hugely. The quantity of petroleum products that was
imported has almost been fully consumed, without
fresh products being brought in to augment supplies
that have now fallen well below
re-order level
"The implication is that in addition to worsening
power supply, crumbling prices of oil at the
international market, weakening Naira and
unprecedented corruption, Nigerians – who routinely
provide their own electricity to power their homes
and business, now have to face another round of
government-imposed hardship with the ongoing fuel
scarcity," the party said.
It said the fuel crisis would not have reached the
stage it is in now had the $12 billion domestic gas
project fund not been looted under President
Jonathan's watch. This is because, with the project
being executed, many vehicles, cooking stoves and
generators would have been converted to use gas to
reduce the importation of PMS, diesel and kerosene,
and gas would have been available to fire the gas
turbines
at power stations while more power would have been
delivered to the national grid
APC accused President Jonathan of sabotaging the
domestic gas project started by the late President
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, with the $12 billion cash call
provisions for gas development for domestic power
generation looted under his (President Jonathan)
watch.
"Late President Yar'Adua made the first allocation of
$1.5 billion for this project in 2009. The amount was
not spent at the time of his death in 2010. However,
direct outlays through annual cash calls continued to
be credited to the project account so much so that by
December 2014, $12 billion had been accumulated in
the same account.
"Had this project been successfully implemented as
envisaged, had the funds made available for the
project not been looted by the rapacious cabal that is
holding Nigeria by the jugular, power generation
would have improved with uninterrupted gas supply
to power the turbines at power station, while the
domestic consumption of PMS, diesel and kerosene
would have reduced, with an increasing number of
vehicles,
cooking stoves and power generators being
converted to use gas instead of PMS, diesel or
kerosene," the party said.
It also slammed the Jonathan Administration for its
inability or unwillingness or both to secure power
installations from contrived sabotage.
"For a federal government that is in control of one
million people under arms (military, police, civil
defence corps, etc), and one that has spent in excess
of 4 trillion Naira on security, there is no justifiable
reason why power installations could not be secured
against sabotage," APC said.
The party said the real saboteurs and indeed those
who have pushed Nigeria to another sorry state of
fuel scarcity are those who have stolen the money
earmarked for gas gathering, processing and
transportation for domestic power production, and
Nigerians know who and where those people are.
It said Nigerians must be wondering whether those
who accused the APC of being behind the fuel
shortage have their heads properly screwed to their
bodies, because the accusation marks a new low in
the sad saga of the Jonathan Administration.
"They (Nigerians) must be wondering when the APC
took over the running of the NNPC, when the APC
took charge of subsidy payment and why the
opposition should become the easy scapegoat of an
ineffectual, clueless, incompetent, visionless and
thieving government. Absurdity has no other
meaning," APC said.
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