Sen. Helen Esuene, an ECOWAS Parliamentarian representing Nigeria, says the Nigerian government can encourage its citizens to build refineries in order to curb fuel shortages in the country.
Esuene made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday, said if Nigerians were allowed to build refineries, it would create employment opportunities.
The parliamentarian said the employment opportunity created would increase the country’s revenue base for accelerated development.
Sen. Helen Esuene, an ECOWAS Parliamentarian representing Nigeria, says the Nigerian government can encourage its citizens to build refineries in order to curb fuel shortages in the country.
Esuene made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday, said if Nigerians were allowed to build refineries, it would create employment opportunities.
The parliamentarian said the employment opportunity created would increase the country’s revenue base for accelerated development.
“Fuel scarcity has been with us for many years and there is no reason whatsoever why we should not have fuel; more than enough to even export.
“It is a shame that Nigeria should have shortage of fuel, we have enough crude oil so why don’t we refine,’’ Esuene asked?
She crticised the payment of money to import fuel, and stressed the need to refine locally to make the product available to the people.
Esuene said that the cost of subsidising fuel running into billions of naira annually was expensive and partly responsible for Nigeria’s many problems.
She noted that in spite of government’s efforts to partially remove the subsidy, it was still a huge amount that was being spent over the little that was being subsidised.
She, therefore, suggested that the cost of production; rather than consumption, should be subsidised to encourage Nigerians to build refineries.
“The Nigerian government missed it when they decided to subsidise the finished product which encourages people to build their refineries outside Nigeria and bring in the product to get subsidy on those products.
“Nigerians are very enterprising, hardworking and good business people and will take up any business knowing that it is viable,’’ Esuene said.
“It is unfortunate that the bulk of the fuel that is used in the country is imported and government subsidises fuel being consumed in Nigeria.
“I would rather have thought that government should provide crude oil at a subsidised rate for anybody in the private sector who wants to build a refinery,’’ she said.
Esuene called on the incoming government to explore other factors that would effectively tackle the issue of fuel scarcity which had continued to put untold hardship on Nigerians.
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