Okupe Counters Dangote After He Called for Total Removal of Fuel Subsidy

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A former presidential spokesperson, Dr Doyin Okupe has disagreed with calls by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote for the total removal of fuel subsidy.

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Reacting on Tuesday, Okupe said he was not in agreement with Aliko Dangote’s call for the complete removal of fuel subsidy.

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Okupe expressed the position in an interview with NAN in Lagos.

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Recall that Dangote, owner of the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery, had in an interview with Bloomberg urged the Nigerian Government to end fuel subsidy completely.

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Speaking during the 26-minute interview in New York on Monday, Dangote said the time was right to end subsidy, which, he said, had cost the country trillions of naira.

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Reacting, Okupe said: “With utmost respect, I disagree with Aliko Dangote on his suggestion that the government should completely end subsidy now.

“Petrol is the economic oxygen of Nigerians, whether rich or poor. This is not the situation in other countries of the world.”

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The former Director-General of the Peter Obi Presidential Campaign said that with the coming up of local refineries, some level of succour should be given to Nigerians.

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According to him, with the allocation of 450,000 barrels a day for local consumption, Nigeria can combine the advantage of local production with local consumption and determine the price to sell crude to local refineries.

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“We can use opportunities that these local refineries avail us, ensuring adequate fuel supply with the dedicated or allocated daily crude oil for local consumption, which is outside OPEC quota.

“So, whatever we do with it is our internal affairs, it is a way of providing some level of comfort.

“We can sell this daily crude oil allocation for local consumption cheaply to determine the average pump price of PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) in the country.

“For instance, the price of Nigerian crude per barrel is $77, we can decide to sell to Dangote refinery at $35 or $37 per barrel, thereby having made adjustments of processing fees and profit margin, the pump price of petroleum can come down to N500 or N600 per litre.

“This will bring major relief, comfort and succour to the masses,” he said.