FG didn’t increase pump price, but deregulation started at wrong time – Hakeem Alao

By Lai Mahmood

It has been stated that the Federal Government of Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari has never increased the fuel pump price in the country, while noting that it was the deregulation policy kick-started by the government that necessitated the increase.

This was stated by Engr Oyedele Hakeem Alao, the 2019 gubernatorial candidate of Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Oyo State while featuring on a radio program in Ibadan.

Engr Oyedele Hakeem Alao said that it was the total removal of subsidy in the oil sector in the country by the Muhammadu Buhari administration that had led to the increase in the pump price of PM’S across the country in the last two weeks, illustrating that “in line with deregulation system, the petrol price would be varying on monthly basis as it’s been done in other countries where there is full deregulation.”

He said no matter how good the policy might sound in order to curb corruption in the sector and divert the subsidy funds to other sectors of the economy, it was done in a wrong time in Nigeria.

Hakeem Alao said, “the funds being earmarked yearly and over a long period of time in the history of Nigeria for subsidy have always gone into private pockets.

“Removal of subsidy and total deregulation is the way Nigeria ought to have gone very long time ago.

“If it had been done long ago, the oil sector regarding availability and affordable pricing would have become stabilized by now.

“It is sad the current increment in the pump price of fuel is coming at time when Covid-19 has disrupted the economic activities of everybody around the world.”

The AD governorship candidate stated that it was the insincerity in the management of the four refineries in Nigeria that has really made it difficult for Nigerians to enjoy affordable fuel pump price, noting that until the refineries were put in good condition to refine the crude oil in the country, the situation was unlikely to get better.

Expressing optimism that the ongoing Dangote Refineries and other ones in Edo and Niger Delta including other modular refineries, when they resumed operations, would improve the situation a bit as some landing costs would have been removed from lifting of the petroleum products, he however lamented that the turn-around maintenance of the nation’s public refineries had not always been given to experts.

He added that “with the current state of the four refineries, it will require complete rehabilitation and de-bottlenecking.”

Asked about how to survive this hard time, especially financing the budgets of the states and the federal government so developmental projects would not suffer, Hakeem Alao, a contracts and projects specialist and oil and gas engineer, said the way to go was to cut down the cost of governance and embrace regional resource control as this would strengthen each constituent unit.

He said that cutting down the salaries, emoluments and luxuries of all public office holders including all elected officers (The Majilis Council) was the approach used by the Gulf countries when the same challenge created by the fall in the global oil price and Covid-19 faced them.

“All heads (including contracts specialists) of multimillion dollar companies handling contracts in the Gulf countries were invited to a meeting by the government of each country, including my company, to find a solution to the problem created by the fall in the world oil price and Covid-19 pandemic.

“We told the governments to cut down the cost of running the government and all the contracting companies also agreed to give discounts to government on all the ongoing contracts and projects and in the end, one of the Gulf countries was able to achieve 25% reduction in their budget for the year.”

Engr Hakeem Alao, however, advised Governor Seyi Makinde to take the advantage of the agrarian nature of Oyo State by investing heavily in the agric sector, utilizing crops like cashew, cassava, maize and mango to drive the industrial sector of the state, and lamenting that it was a pity that a lot of people who got to power did not understand the running of government, especially  the government financial transations, and  all that are involved because they never engaged in due diligence before they got to office.

Concluding, Engr Oyebode Hakeem Alao stated that Nigeria had the best of brains and policies to move the country forward but “implementation is always the problem,” stressing that “both the leaders and the followers have attitudinal problem and until we all change from this corrupt lifestyle, indiscipline and mental attitude, the nation can’t move forward.”