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A former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and vice chairman, Kaduna Investment Promotion Agency, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has raised questions over claims by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) that Nigeria consumes 66 million litres of fuel per day.
Unreal figures: The deposed Emir of Kano described the NNPC figures as simply "unbelievable", wondering how the country has managed to increase its daily fuel consumption by 50% in just three years.
Sanusi said this while delivering his keynote speech at the seventh edition of KadInvest, an annual event organised by the Kaduna State Investment Promotion Agency on Saturday, October 15, 2022.
Clean up NNPC: He raised doubts over the supposed volume of Nigeria's daily consumption of petrol, adding that whoever emerges the president in 2023 should first prioritise high standard audit of every penny spent on the NNPC.
Sanusi's word: “In 2019, officially we were importing 40 million litres per day. In 2022 officially, we are importing 66 million per day. In three years, we have increased our petrol consumption by 50%.
“Please tell me, is it the population? Is it the number of cars? Just ask yourself if it makes sense that in three years you increase your consumption of petrol by 50%. Are we drinking petrol?
“The NNPC says we are consuming 66 million litres per day, so we are consuming more than Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, Cote d’Ivoire and others.
“Whoever becomes president in 2023, the first thing they should do is ask the NNPC to document and bring evidence for every dollar they took as subsidy. They must give the ships that came and we can verify from the insurance companies if those ships were in Nigeria on those dates.
“That is what the law says. There must be proof that the product came in, at the price you said you bought it, before you pay subsidy.”
No easy way out for Nigeria: The erstwhile governor of Nigeria's apex bank further posits that any candidate that claims it would be easy to get Nigeria out of the current economic doldrums would be lying to the people and that Nigerians should avoid voting for such candidates.
He also decried the current hardship Nigerians have been subjected to and said until the government comes clean with the citizens, it has no moral right to transfer such hardship to the citizenry.
Sanusi's word: “Until we bring credibility and transparency to the management of public finance, no government has the moral right to impose hardship on Nigerians. They have suffered enough.
“Anybody who tells you that it is going to be easy, please do not vote for him, because it is either he is lying to you or he does not know what job he is going to get.
“You cannot with this level of debt service, collapse in revenue and poverty overturn things just like that. We have to take corrective decisions and first close out inflated and false numbers.”
Subsidy must go: Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had said, during his presentation of the N20.51 trillion 2023 budget proposal to the National Assembly, that removing subsidy would be the best decision for the country, considering the prevailing economic challenges.