Legal luminary, Barrister Dania seeks overhaul of entire petroleum supply chain
Legal luminary, Barrister Dania seeks overhaul of entire petroleum supply chain
Reactions have continued to trail the sudden removal of petroleum subsidy by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration which has led to over 200% increase in Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) pump price from the official rate of N185 per litre to over N500.
Recall that the President, in his inauguration speech on May 29, had said that the era of petroleum subsidy was gone. Immediately after the declaration, filling stations across the country jacked up their pump prices per litre from N185 to N500.
Adding his voice to the debate on the subsidy removal, Barr. Tony Dania ,a Human Rights Activist and Maritime Consultant on a Channels Television’s Morning show ‘Sunrise Daily” programme on Saturday with the theme: Subsidy Removal: Counting the Costs, berated the Federal government under Tinubu for not taking some steps to overhaul the petroleum supply chain to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians before removing the Subsidy.
According to Barr. Dania, “We ought to have taken certain steps, there is no way we can take all the steps. Steps to overhaul the petroleum subsidy supply chain by removing all the bottlenecks. We have Customs, apart from collecting official revenue, they are collecting unofficial too, Navy the same thing, NPA, NIMASA is there. Remove all these bottlenecks and you will be serving not less than N80 from landing cost of PMS ” he said.
He urged the Government to liberalize the PMS import chain so that other actors can come in . When asked if he is in support of the last administration’s request to borrow $800million, Dania said “I am not in support, just like I was not in support of collecting billions to pay judgement debts when the government is continuously in existence.”
He added “In the past, the refineries were working and that put less pressure on our financial system. But now, the refineries are not working, despite so much money invested in them.”
He commended the Tinubu’s Government for promising to unify the exchange rate that it will help marketers to source for their funds. He also questioned why the product cannot be paid for in local currency, Naira.
Barr. Dania who is the Okweogbe of South Ibie Kingdom, urged the president to cushion the sufferings of the masses through review of policies to have human faces.
