...As IPMAN Kano Denies Hike
From Ayobami Ife, Abeokuta
Nigerians are reacting in anger over the increment in petrol price, with many wondering if that is what deregulation means.
They condemned the hike and dismissed President Muhammadu Buhari government as one that is both clueless and lacks the empathy to bring the positive change Nigeria truly deserves.
Miss Funmilayo Tijani, an undergraduate student, Rufus Oluyede, a taxi driver based in Abeokuta, Ogun State, and Maryamo Musibau, a petty trader who spoke with our reporters separately on Friday morning, said it was an act of insensitivity on the part of the government to increase the petrol price when people could hardly afford two square meals a day.
"This is a war on the masses. The impact will be felt more by students and poor parents who will have to go into further sacrifice in order to send their children and wards to school," Funmilayo said.
But in a place like Kano State, the independent petroleum marketers association of Nigeria IPMAN in the State said there is no official directive yet on Fuel price hike and discountenanced the news publications across the country of fuel price increment.
The chairman of the association in Kano State Branch Alhaji Bashir Ahmad Dan Malam who is said to have addressed his people in Kano on Friday morning, directed IPMAN members to continue selling a litre at the old price until the contrary is established.
He also addressed newsmen, saying whenever there is fuel increment critical stakeholders will notify the IPMAN leadership.
However, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) chairman in Ogun State, Bunmi Fajobi, has said that the national leadership of the TUC would give direction on what the response of the body should be if the reported increment in petrol price turned out to be true.
Fajobi recalled that there was an on - going dialogue between the Federal Government, its representatives agencies and the organized labour in the country over petrol price and electricity tariffs and expressed disatisfaction with the increment.
He said it could only be considered as a breach of agreement on the part of the federal government or its representative agencies to hike the petrol price while discussion was still on.
But despite promising that Muhammadu Buhari administration would not increase petrol price in March, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, has jacked up the pump price of petrol at N212.61 per litre.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, had on February 28 ruled out any increment in the ex-depot price of petrol in March, 2021 to allay the fears among Nigerian's of fuel price increase upon observing that vehicular queues had began to surface at filling stations in places like Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna.
The Daily Crucible recalls that in its late February statement, the NNPC said the price of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) in the country would not be increased in March so that the ongoing engagements with organized labour and other stakeholders at the time in respect of an acceptable framework would not be truncated.
But by late Thursday night, the PPPRA slammed on Nigerians' faces a new price regime for the month, announcing that the retail price for a litre of petrol for March would be between N209.61 and N212.61.
The increment is predicated on the average costs of imported petroleum products, PPPRA argued.
In its pricing template for the month of March, the PPRA said the average littering expenses were put at N4.81 per litre; Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA charge N2.49 per litre; NIMASA charge N0.23 per litre; Jetty Thru put of N1.61 per litre and Storage charge of N2.58 per litre and average finance cost of N2.17 per litre, translating to an expected landing cost per litre of N189.61.
The wholesale margin was fixed at N4.03 per litre; administration charge, N1.23 per litre; transporters’ allowance (NTA) of N3.89 per litre; Bridging Fund cost of N7.51 per litre and Marine transport average (MTA) of N0.15 per litre.
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