The Presidency has dismissed the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, claim that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) retail discount amounted to a return to subsidy.
It said NNPC had offered the discount to mark Nigeria’s 66th Independence anniversary and had now offered to extend it by another 30 days.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.
“When NNPC Retail agrees to sell fuel at landing cost for 30 days during an unprecedented global crude price spike, it is not writing checks to opaque import cartels.
“It is leveraging its corporate balance sheet to absorb short-term global volatility, backed directly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” Dare stated.
He said the negotiated interim ceiling of N1,350 per litre on ex-gantry costs was “a structural shock absorber, not price control.”
“Under it, refiners and importers absorb short-term cost spikes above the ceiling and recover them later when crude prices cool or the exchange rate adjusts.
“The ceiling is reviewed monthly based on published cost audits, the statement noted.
“₦1,400 today and ₦1,400 tomorrow provides far greater economic stability than ₦1,500 today and ₦1,300 tomorrow,” Dare said, adding that erratic fuel prices trigger transport fare hikes that rarely fall back.
Speaking further, Dare described Atiku’s proposed production subsidy on petrol as “a dangerous mathematical fantasy wrapped in political deceit.”
He pointed to a recent interview by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, in which he said Nigeria produces about 1.8 million barrels of crude per day for a population of over 200 million. Still, the Federal Government does not directly own all the oil.
To propose a blanket ‘targeted production subsidy’ on crude without the physical, unencumbered volume to back it up is pure economic illiteracy,” Dare said, adding that, “It invites the very opacity, fraudulent round-tripping, and fiscal haemorrhage that crippled Nigeria for decades under the old subsidy regime.”
The Presidency noted that refineries such as the Dangote Petroleum Refinery need more feedstock than the state could freely supply without breaching international supply contracts, which is why Dangote and other domestic refiners also imported crude.
It rejected a comparison of crude allocation with farm produce like garri or cassava, saying it misrepresented commodity markets.
