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President Tinubu faces angers as fuel hits N630/litre
There was widespread anger by Nigerians, on Tuesday, following the hike in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and other oil marketers across the country.
In Abuja and Ondo State, for instance, the cost of petrol jumped from about N537/litre to between N617 and N630/litre, forcing the cost of transportation to skyrocket within hours, and leaving thousands of passengers stranded in many cities.
The Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress and many other citizens lambasted the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government for being so tough on citizens by allowing the continued hike in the price of petrol.
Although the NNPCL and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, both Federal Government entities, explained that market forces caused the hike in petrol price, since the commodity had been fully deregulated, Nigerians expressed frustrations over the continued sharp increase in the cost of the product.
It was observed that petrol price was raised from N537/litre to N617/litre at some filling stations operated by the NNPCL in Abuja on Tuesday.
Independent oil marketers confirmed the increase in the cost of the commodity, as they stated that any shift in price by NNPCL stations was an indication of a rise in the pump price of PMS.
“This is because NNPCL is still the major importer of petrol into Nigeria currently, though other marketers are gradually importing the commodity. The price this (Tuesday) morning at some NNPCL stations is N617/litre,” the Secretary, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abuja-Suleja, Mohammed Shuaibu, told one of our correspondents.
Tinubu had during his inaugural address on May 29, announced that subsidy on petrol had ended, a development that led to the jump in the price of the commodity from N198/litre to over N500/litre on May 30, 2023.
Since the withdrawal of subsidy on petrol and the floating of the naira against the dollar, marketers had continued to explain that the cost of PMS could rise to as high as N700/litre.
Similarly, the rise in the cost of crude oil in the international market has also triggered further hike in petrol price, as crude is the product from which PMS and other refined petroleum products are produced.
In Abuja, on Tuesday morning, motorists besieged filling stations that were still dispensing at N540/litre, but as the news of the hike in price by NNPCL stations filtered in, many independent outlets shut their stations.
Others immediately commenced the adjustment of their pumps to reflect the new price.
The Nigeria Labour Congress on threatened to take “matters into its own hands” following the decision by the NNPCL to hike petrol price and the Federal Government’s plan to distribute N8,000 monthly to 12 million poor households in the country.
The NLC in a statement issued by its National President, Joe Ajaero, accused the Tinubu-led government of taking from the poor to pay the rich and unleashing suffering, hardship and sorrow upon Nigerians.
It said it had restrained itself from making further comments publicly on the vexatious issues around the recent but unfortunate unilateral hike in the price of petrol, which was in the guise of “the so-called subsidy withdrawal.”
The statement read in part, “However, the government of Nigeria seems to have been misled into believing that resorting to impunity and imperiousness in governance in a democracy is a beneficial option as it pursues its stated and unstated objectives.
“It is this belief that we are sure has continued shaping the actions of this government since its inauguration on May 29, 2023, to continue inflicting mindless and heartless pains on the populace one after the other without the decency of embracing the tenets of democracy which requires wide and deep stakeholder consultations on weighty matters of state.”
The NLC stated that Nigerians would remember that the Federal Government had called for dialogue in the aftermath of its disastrous forlorn trajectory in the astronomical increase in petroleum product price “and our subsequent call for a nationwide industrial action.”
It said, “We were also witnesses to the actions of the Federal Government in procuring an unholy injunction from the courts which were served us in Gestapo style by trucks laden with fully armed soldiers and policemen.
“In all of these provocations, we remained committed to the principles of the rule of law, good conscience and democracy so that we can continue to be the moral compass for leaders in the public space. This explained our decision to suspend action on the proposed strike.”
The labour union, however, stated that rather than reciprocate the goodwill of Nigerian workers, the Federal Government insisted on threading the path of dictatorship and seeking to impoverish the people further by taking steps that could only be described as robbing the people of Nigeria to pay and feed the rich.It said, “It is on this basis that the NLC strongly condemns the decision of the Tinubu-led administration to seek the approval of the National Assembly to obtain another tranche of external loans worth N500bn from the World Bank for the purposes of carrying out a phantom palliative measure to cushion the effect of its poorly thought-out hike in the price of PMS.
“Remember that the $800m which was already proposed before the devaluation of the naira by this government was worth about N400bn then but is now worth about N650bn after devaluation. It is from this, it proposes to bring out N500bn for distribution.
“The proposal to pay N8,000 to each of the so-called 12 million poorest Nigerian households for a period of six months insults our collective intelligence and makes a mockery of our patience and abiding faith in social dialogue which the government may have alluded to albeit pretentiously.”
The NLC pointed out that the “further proposal to pay National Assembly members the sum of N70bn and the Judiciary N36bn is the most insensitive, reckless and brazen diversion of our collective patrimony into the pockets of public officers whose sworn responsibility it is to protect our nation’s treasury.”
The union said this might amount to hush money and outright bribery of the other arms of government to acquiesce the aberration.
“It is unconscionable that a government that has foisted so much hardship on the people within nearly two months of coming into office will make a proposal that clearly rewards the rich in public office to the detriment of the poor.
“What this means all this while is that the government is seeking ways of robbing the very poor Nigerians so that the rich can become richer. There is no other way to explain the proposal to pay a misery sum of N8,000 to each of the mysterious poorest 12 million households for six months which amounts to N48,000 and pay just 469 national legislators N70bn or about N149m each, while the Judiciary that has about 72 Appeal Court Judges, 33 National Industrial Court Judges, 75 Federal High Court Judges and 21 Supreme Court Judges and a total of about 201 Judges receives a total of N35bn or N174m each.
Punch
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says the decision by Starlink to unilaterally review its subscription packages upwards did not receive the approval of the commission.
In a statement signed by its Director, Public Affairs, Reuben Mouka said the action of the company is in contravention of Sections 108 and 111 of the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA), 2003, and Starlink’s Licence Conditions regarding tariffs.
The Commission commenced pre-enforcement action on the licensee on the 3rd of October, 2024.
The Federal Government has announced that it will commence implementation of the $750m World Bank-funded rural electricity project in November.
It said the project will provide over 17.5m Nigerians with new or improved access to electricity through distributed renewable energy solutions.
The Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency, Abba Aliyu, disclosed this when he appeared on Channels Television’s Sunrise daily programme on Thursday.
Recall that in December 2023, the World Bank announced the approval of Nigeria Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up project, being financed by $750m International Development Association credit and would leverage over $1bn of private capital and significant parallel financing from development partners.
The financing from development partners includes $100m from the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet and $200m from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
Other development partners collaborating on the programme include the United States Agency for International Development, the German Development Agency, SEforAll, and the African Development Bank.
But 10 months after its approval, the REA MD noted that the project would begin implementation next month without stating reasons for the delay.
He explained that three million anticipated beneficiaries would be connected through the isolated mini-grid, 1.5 million Nigerians through the inter-connected mini-grip, and 12 million would be electrified using a merged grid and solar stand-alone system.
Aliyu said, “There is a new project that we are starting next month called the Distributed Renewable Energy Scale-up project which is a $750 million financed by the World Bank.”
“The target of that project is to electrify 17.5 million Nigerians, and I must say that this is one of the most ambitious projects in the world based on my understanding from India that has moved many unelectrified people to have access to electricity.
“Three million of them through the isolated mini-grid, 1.5 million Nigerians through the interconnected mini grip, 12 million would be electrified using a merged grid and solar stand-alone system.”
Aliyu further said the project is estimated to last for five years and was built on successes recorded from similar projects in the past which cost $550 million and were funded by the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
A Federal High Court in Abuja has issued an order barring the Directorate of Road Traffic Services (otherwise known as VIO) from further stopping vehicles on the road, impounding or confiscating vehicles, and imposing fines on motorists.
Justice Evelyn Maha issued the order in a judgment on a fundamental rights enforcement suit: FHC/ABJ/CS/1695/2023 filed by a human rights activist and public interest attorney, Abubakar Marshal.
Also affected by the order are the Director of Road Transport; the Area Commander, Jabi, and the Team Leader, Jabi, and the Minister of the FCT, also listed as respondents.
In the judgment delivered on Wednesday, October 2, Justice Maha upheld Marshal’s argument that no law empowers respondents to stop, impound, confiscate, seize, or impose fines on motorists.
The judge declared that the first to the 4th respondents, who are under the control of the 5th respondent (Minister of the FCT) are not empowered by any law or statute to stop, impound, or confiscate the vehicles of motorists and or impose fines on motorists.
She proceeded to issue an order restraining the 1st to 4th respondents either through their agents, servants, and or assigns from impounding, confiscating the vehicle of motorists, and or imposing a fine on any motorist as doing so is wrongful, oppressive, and unlawful by themselves.
Justice Maha further made an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents whether by themselves, agents, privies, allies or anybody acting on behalf of the 1st respondent from further violating the rights of Nigerians to freedom of movement, presumption of innocence and right to own property without lawful justification.
Folashodun Shonubi, a witness in the trial of former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Godwin Emefiele, told the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) yesterday that the naira redesign policy did not follow standard procedure.
Shonubi, a former CBN Acting Governor, said there were intrigues and politics around the 2022 redesign policy.
The former Deputy Governor (Operations) said: “When we had meetings with the defendant (Emefiele), he said there were politics and intrigues around the whole exercise.”
Led in evidence by Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), the witness said the redesigned naira notes produced by the CBN under Emefiele were not the same as those approved by ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said the memo presented to the president for the redesign was solely prepared by Emefiele.
Shonubi said the normal procedure was for the Currency Management Department to recommend a redesign, after which a paper would be submitted to the Committee of Governors (COG) for consideration.
Upon the COG’s approval, the CBN Board would make a recommendation to the President.
The witness said after the President’s approval was received, the bank would then set up an internal committee to execute the currency redesign.
Shonubi, a member of both the COG and CBN Board, told the court that Emefiele killed the recommendation made in early 2021 by the bank’s Currency Department for a redesign.
He said: “The CBN did not follow the procedures (for redesigning the currency). I was a member of the CBN Board as Deputy Governor.
“The chairman of both the COG and board was the governor. In early 2021, the Currency Department recommended the redesign of the currency notes.
“A paper was presented to me and on the instruction of the governor (Emefiele). It was stepped down.
“In 2022, we again represented the paper and were asked to hold on.
“In mid-October 2022, the Deputy Governors were invited to a meeting in the office of the Governor where he (Emefiele) informed us that he had presidential approval for currency redesign.
“He showed us the memo, Mr President’s signature and instruction on the last page.”
Shonubi said under cross-examination by ace defence counsel Olalekan Ojo (SAN) that he was not aware of the discussions between the defendant and the former President over the redesign policy.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is trying Emefiele on a four-count charge of illegal acts causing public injury.
He pleaded not guilty.
Justice Maryanne Anenih adjourned till Tuesday.
The Senate yesterday summoned the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, over the deplorable condition of the Old Oyo-Ogbomosho Road.
The resolution of the Senate’s consideration of a motion of urgent public importance was moved by Senator Buhari Abdulfatai (APC – Oyo-North), who drew his colleagues’ attention to the worsening condition of the road.
Abdulfatai said the road, a major link between the South and North, had caused untold hardship for travellers, most of who were frequently stranded due to the poor state of the road.
For over 10 years after the Federal Government began major repairs on the road, Buhari said it had remained deplorable, causing regular accidents and daily gridlock by articulated vehicles.
Buhari in his lead debate underscored the im portance of good roads, saying apart from preventing avoidable accidents, it makes movement of goods and services easy.
He said: “The Senate is aware that transportation ensures stable prices in different markets and enables traders to regulate the supply of goods at locations, based on changing demands.’’
President Bola Tinubu will on Wednesday depart Abuja for the United Kingdom to begin a two-week vacation.
The vacation is “part of his yearly leave,” Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, revealed in a statement he signed Wednesday.
The statement is titled ‘President Tinubu goes on annual leave.’
“He will use the two weeks as a working vacation and a retreat to reflect on his administration’s economic reforms.
“He will return to the country after the leave expires,” the statement read in part.
Sources close to the President had confirmed to our correspondent that Tinubu was taking the two-week break as part of his annual leave.
Wednesday’s trip comes two weeks after the President returned from London where he met with King Charles III.
The UK becomes Tinubu’s 27th foreign destination since he assumed office about 16 months ago and his fourth trip to the country.
So far, he has visited Equatorial Guinea, London (four times), the United Kingdom (twice); Bissau, Guinea-Bissau (twice); Nairobi, Kenya; Porto Norvo, Benin Republic; Pretoria, South Africa; Accra, Ghana; New Delhi, India; Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates; New York, the United States of America; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (twice); Berlin, Germany; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Dakar, Senegal and Doha, Qatar.
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