BY Bunmi Aduloju
Emmanuel Osodeke, chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has asked the federal government to sell crude to local refineries at a subsidised price.
The ASUU chairman spoke during a recent interview on Channels TV’s ‘Inside Sources’.
Osodeke said if the country has 10 working refineries and if the officials of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), who are at the border, are doing their job, “we would not be talking about subsidy”.
“We have the crude, we will not be importing crude if we are serious. What you can do is to tell these refineries that if crude is selling abroad for $80 per barrel, we will sell to you in Nigeria for $20 per barrel,” Osodeke said.
“But you will say, yes, it’s ours. What are you going to pay for the cost of drilling and transportation?”
He added that once crude is sold to these refineries at a particular amount, there can be a subsequent deliberation on the price that the refineries would sell petroleum products to Nigerians.
The ASUU chairman said with this arrangement, the issue of petroleum products pricing would be sorted.
“I’m telling you that now we have a refinery in Nigeria. I have been there,” Osodeke said.
“The capacity can give us the whole country all the fuel we need. So, why are we talking about importation?
“Sit him down, he’s a Nigerian, negotiate the cost of bringing the crude, reduce the price of crude, but tell him that he must sell to our people at this price.”
On July 29, the federal executive council (FEC) approved a proposal by President Bola Tinubu directing the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to sell crude oil to Dangote refinery and other refineries in naira.
The federal government said the sale of crude oil to the Dangote refinery and other refineries in naira would commence on October 1.
On October 5, the federal government said Nigeria had officially commenced the sale of crude oil and refined petroleum products in naira.
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