The Head of History Department at the Kaduna State University (KASU) Dr. Terhemba Wuam has called on the federal government to deregulate the oil sector and remove all vestiges of subsidy so that economic realities can determine the final price at petrol stations.
He made this call during a presentation at the symposium on ‘How to end fuel scarcity n Nigeria’ organized by the Department of History in KASU. According to him, removing subsidy and deregulating means that there will be no need for government to set prices.
“If the market reality is such that the price is no longer sustainable, then the government because of political repercussions, find itself in a difficult position as is now apparent. When former President Goodluck Jonathan attempted subsidy removal in 2012 and fixed the price at N145 per litre, the first approach was correct, the second, fixing the price was wrong. This similarly occurred with President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016 when he announced both subsidy removal and a price of N145 per litre,”
Speaking further, he stressed that if subsidy is removed, the government should no longer be in a position to determine prices; saying that the operators should be the ones setting prices based on market factors. “In the current crisis, independent marketers have reacted to the market by simply deciding not to import.
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