As Nigerians continue to experience untold hardship due to
current fuel scarcity in the country, the Federal Government has blamed former
President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration for the development.
The government said Jonathan had the blame
because his government never made adequate provision for fuel subsidy in the
2015 budget.
This was even as it explained that it
inherited the vandalisation of the pipelines from the immediate past administration,
thus making it impossible to even transport the fuel to the respective
distribution points in the country.
Speaking to State House Correspondents,
Monday, after the rescheduled emergency Federal Executive Council, FEC ,
meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, Minister of Information,
Lai Mohammed, alongside Minister of Budget and Planning, Udoma Udo – Udoma,
insisted that the fuel scarcity being experienced now was as a result of
inadequate provision for fuel subsidy in the ongoing year by the Jonathan
– led regime.
“One of the reasons for the fuel scarcity
was the inability of the last government to make adequate provision for fuel
subsidy.
“We do face some other logistic problems
but majorly, we are paying for the sins of the last administration .”
‘What I will be telling Nigerians is that
what we met on ground is such that we are paying for the sins of the last
administration. I am being very serious. You remember that about two weeks ago,
we had to go to the National Assembly for a supplementary budget of N674
billion.
“Of that figure, N522billion was for
arrears of fuel subsidy which was incurred as far back as August last year.
“The solution is what you have seen us
doing. The first thing we have done now is to make sure that unlike before when
the marketers used to import the major percentage of the fuel. NNPC has been
involved in importation, because some of the marketers had stopped importing
for a couple of months.”
“If you see any fuel anywhere today, it is
imported by the NNPC. We also inherited the vandalisation of the pipelines
which has made it impossible for us to even transport the fuel. In tanks today
we have 14 days reserve and off tank we have 10 days reserve.
“The issue is not non-availability of the
product it is the distribution, because of pipelines that have been vandalised
and the gridlock in Lagos. It takes about five days for anybody to take fuel
with tanker in Lagos.
“As at two days ago this matter has been
resolved. The Mosinmi pipeline has been secured and it has lead to the
improvement in the distribution, “he said.
-Vanguard
No comments:
Post a Comment