The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and socio-political organization, Afenifere, has called on the federal government to immediately order the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) to reverse the recent increase in pump price.
TheHintsNews reports that NNPCL on Tuesday September 3, 2024 raised the pump price of petrol to N897 per litre from the official price of N617.
The announcement came just a few days after the national oil company said it was facing challenges of huge debt burden estimated at $6.8 billion.
Afenifere in a statement signed by its spokesman, Jare Ajayi, said ironically, the announcement of the debt came just not long after the same corporation announced that it made a profit of N3.3 trillion Net Profit in its 2023 Audited Financial Statement.
It wondered why an organisation that declared a profit running into trillions of Naira could, almost in the same breath, claim that it was indebted to the tune of nearly seven billion US dollars.
It pointed out that Nigerians are currently going through a lot of challenges as a result of the biting socio-economic crunch and the attendant hardships.
It noted: “It is therefore a wrong time to come up with any policy that will increase the undesirable challenges Nigerians are going through presently.
“Failure by the NNPCL to reverse the latest increment in fuel price will rub off negatively on some policies of Tinubu administration to ease things for the citizens. Policies such as the Students Loan Scheme and Consumer Credit Scheme that are just taking off”.
“It is a common knowledge that the cost and availability of energy such as petrol, gas, electricity, diesel and kerosine are major factors not only in production and services but also on the quality of well-being that Nigerians can enjoy.
“Hikes in prices of these energy sources have astronomically increased the costs of services and commodities, reduced the disposal incomes of average Nigerians and heighten their health risk.”