A former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and vice chairman, Kaduna Investment Promotion Agency, Lamido Sanusi, has said the claim by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company that Nigeria consumes 66 million litres of fuel daily is simply “unbelievable.”
The deposed Emir of Kano said this while delivering his keynote speech at the seventh edition of KadInvest, an annual event organised by the Kaduna State Investment Promotion Agency.
Sanusi queried the supposed volume of Nigeria’s daily consumption of petrol adding that whoever the incoming president would be come 2023 would first need to do a high standard audit of every penny spent on the NNPC.
He said, “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,” he added.
Sanusi further stated that with the current state of the economy, it would be a lie if any candidate claimed it would be easy to fix, adding that Nigerians should avoid voting for such candidates.
He also lamented the current hardship Nigerians are facing and said until the government is transparent and credible towards the citizens, it has no right to impose such hardship on the citizenry.
He said, “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.”
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), last Friday, had said the removal of fuel subsidy was the best decision for the country, considering the current economic challenges, while presenting the N20.51 trillion 2023 budget proposal to the National Assembly.
The President was represented at the event in Kaduna by the Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment, Maryam Katagum.
Also present were the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu; Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai; Aliko Dangote among others.
