President Bola Tinubu said on Tuesday that the government will take steps to maintain the current pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, in the country without reversing its policy of cutting subsidies.
The president also said the threat from the Nigeria Labor Congress, NLC, to shut down the economy over a high-profile fuel price hike plan was premature and said it was up to all stakeholders to keep their peace. He said the price will not rise in any part of the country.
The President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, announced the briefing while briefing State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The media briefing was after the presidential spokesman met with the president on the issue following the NLC’s threat to go on strike without notice if fuel prices are raised again. According to him, the official position is that there is no price increase at the moment, as “the president is convinced, based on information in his possession, that we can maintain current prices without reversing our deregulation policies by quickly eliminating existing inefficiencies within the midstream clean-up and downstream petroleum sector.”
He said it is the duty of all stakeholders to keep their peace and try to exercise due diligence to defend the true position. According to him, the president intends to maintain the competitive tension to ensure that no single person or organization dominates the industry. Ngelale said the government will address inefficiencies in the midstream and downstream petroleum value chains so that the price can be stabilized. The presidential spokesperson presented a graph to prove that gasoline costs in Nigeria are still much cheaper than in other West African countries.
Ngelale stated, “This morning I have the privilege of sitting with His Excellency President Bola Tinubu as we discussed the current situation in the country regarding fuel supply and demand.“The president first wants to declare that it is the duty of all stakeholders in the country to keep their peace. “We have very recently learned from the organized labor movement in the country about their latest threat.
“We believe the threat was premature and there is a need on all sides to ensure that fact-finding and due diligence is done on what the current state of the downstream and midstream oil industry is before any threats or conclusions are made. drawn or published.“Secondly, Mr. President would like to reassure Nigerians following the NNPC Limited announcement yesterday that there will be no increase in the pump price of Petroleum Motor Gasoline anywhere in the country.
“We reiterate, the president confirms there will be no increase in the pump price of gasoline motor gasoline. “We also want to reaffirm the President’s determination to maintain competitive tension within all sub-sectors of the petroleum industry.
“He is committed to ensuring that our established policies and policies implemented follow that no single entity will dominate the market
The market is deregulated. It has been liberalized and we are moving forward in that direction without looking back. “The president also wishes to confirm that there are currently inefficiencies in the midstream and downstream petroleum subsectors that, once addressed and cleaned up very quickly, will allow us to maintain prices where they are without having to resort to a reversal of this government’s policy of deregulation. in the petroleum industry.
“We are currently by some distance the cheapest, most affordable purchasing state in the West African sub-region. There is no country that is below N700 per liter. “So this is the backdrop we’ve seen at the start of our deregulation bubble.
Niger: Reason NAF Jet Crashed – Air Chief
The Chief of the Air Force, Air Marshal Hassan Abubakar, provided insight on Tuesday into the cause of the crashes involving fighter jets and surveillance aircraft, including those in Niger state.
Abubakar also vowed that the air forces associated with Operation Hadrian Daji and Operation Whirl Punch conduct operations in both Niger and the northwestern region of the country against bandits and will continue to crack down on the non-state actors.
He stated this at NAF headquarters in Abuja when Niger State Governor Umar Bago paid him a condolence visit over the deaths of his pilots and some soldiers. The air chief attributed the crashes to seasonal challenges, namely weather conditions – the development, he says, hinders his officers’ combat effectiveness during operations. According to him, “As for our own parts, we don’t fold our arms, we just live with the challenges.
The ideal is to aim for zero incidents and accidents in any operational environment.
“That’s what we strive for, it’s pretty much impossible to achieve, but then you strive for it so that at the end of the day you’re minimizing whatever happens. Or when it happens, the effect is significantly reduced. “We are taking many initiatives to control this.
For example, we have implemented safety management systems in all our operations. Among other things, we have also established procedures for operational risk management. In the future, we aim for zero incidents in all our operations. The challenge we take on.
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“Even if the harmattan comes, it will also have consequences for our operations. These are challenges we live with and we hope you understand at times when our operations are hampered or hampered by some of these challenges.”