Fuel Price Will Go Downwards In Few Months’ Time, Kachikwu Assures Nigerians

Ibe KachikwuThe Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu has told Nigerians to bear with government over the recent increment in price of petrol, saying in few months’ time, the price will go downwards.
“You will be amazed at what will happen to your N145 price because it will go downwards”, Kachikwu said Thursday when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily.
The Minister on Wednesday announced the removal of subsidy on petroleum products and an increment of the price of premium motor spirit to N145 a litre. He, however, advised the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, retail outlets to sell the product at a lower price than N145, but he did not specify the amount.
Explaining to Nigerians that it was not an easy decision to remove fuel subsidy, Mr. Kachikwu said “You don’t give what you don’t have. We want Nigerians to understand that we feel the pain, and we have tried to avoid it since I came in October. We have done everything we could.
“We first went on to the issue of the subsidies that we inherited which, by the way, were based on 50 to 55 million litres consumption, and we said the number looked bloated. So, we did an experiment and came to a conclusion that this country doesn’t consume more than 45 million litres a day.
“Then we came to a second point and said, ‘We are not even going to have subsidy again. We are going to exit it because there was just too much fraud involved in it”.
“So, left with that option, what were we supposed to do? We have struggled. Queues continue to go and they are back. And it will continue to happen unless we address the issues”, he was quoted as saying.