Patrick Oludare, a public Affairs Analyst has advised President Bola Tinubu on the way out of the various challenges facing Nigerians.
In a statement made available to newsmen, Oludare said, “The citizens of Nigeria are going through a very unpalatable and unprecedented economic hardship at the moment. The huge problems of skyrocketing inflation, worsening standard of living, hunger, food inflation are the causes of suffering of Nigerians.
“The policies of government has ignited a major crisis in the economic situation of the country through devaluation of the naira and removal of subsidy.
“The payment of subsidy to oil markerters for the year 2023 cost the government 6.72 trillion Naira.
“In 2024,Nigerian government says the landing cost of petrol is 1200 Naira. If subsidy is completely removed, consumers would pay about N1200 to buy fuel. This is unaffordable for Many Nigerians with rapidly declining purchasing power.
“Nigeria oil production has risen to 1.6 million barrels per day according to the speech of the president who is also the petroleum minister.
“NNPC is the sole importer of petrol and petroleum products to Nigeria, and sells petrol to oil marketers
“The sale of 1.5 million barrels of oil per day would yield a yearly revenue of about 70 trillion naira.
“A barrel of crude oil is 159 liters that contains 73 litres of petrol, 36 litres of diesel, 20 liters of aviation fuel, 6 litres of propene, and 34 litres of butane, asphalt and sulphur.
“About 300,000 barrels of crude oil would produce the petrol that satisfy the daily consumption of petrol in Nigeria. 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day for 365 days is equivalent to 14 trillion Naira at the current market price of $8 per barrel.
“If the Nigerian government decided to set about 300,000 barrels of crude oil apart and sell it at the rate of 1 dollars to dollars to a oil refining company. It would help the company to reduce its refining cost of production. The price of crude oil is what determines the cost of petrol in countries globally.
“A cheap crude oil means cheap petrol, cheap diesel, cheap kerosene etc. Selling crude oil 1 dollars, and then importing the fuel produced from 300,000 barrels of crude oil into Nigeria would give a steep, sharp fall in the prices of petrol, diesel, kerosene, aviation fuel etc.
“The price of petrol would fall to 15 Naira per litre instead of the 1200 Naira per litre. Price of diesel from 1000Naira per litre to 12.5 Naira per litre. Kerosene price from the current 1550 Naira per litre to 19 Naira per litre. Aviation fuel may be reduced to 15Naira per litre from the current price of 1200 Naira per litre.
“It may surprise many but the principle of energy prices is that the fall in the retail price of a petroleum products leads to fall in the price of another petroleum products.
“Fall in price of petrol and diesel would stimulate the production capacity of industries and significantly resuscitate businesses because manufacturing industries would use diesel as source of energy.
“It would transform all sectors of the economy.The cost of living for Nigerians would reduce immensely.
“A lot of citizens would be happy because they would be able to buy cheap food and cheap goods. Jobs would be created for many and many citizens can establish their dream startups and business.
“This would enable the citizens to produce enough goods and services for local consumption and exportation to foreign nations.
“A positive consequence of fall in energy prices is the increase the value of the naira. The national exchange rate will be strong because there is possibility of one dollar to be exchanged below N5.
“The economy would be on the upward and growth direction till it become economically buoyant and can then be regarded as a global economic player.”
