A former Head of the Economics Department, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun, Prof. Evans Osabuhien, has appealed to the Federal Government to intensify effort at repairing the nation’s four refineries.
Osabuhien made the appeal in an interview on Tuesday in Ota.
He spoke while reacting to a statement by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that the pump price of petrol was likely to get to N190 per little as the price of crude oil hit 60 dollars per barrel in the international market.
Nigerian oil marketers on Monday said that petrol might sell for N200 per litre.
Osabuhien noted that there was an urgent need for the Federal Government to urgently repair the country’s refineries, with a combined refining capacity of 445,000 barrels per day, in order to ameliorate the sufferings of millions of Nigerians.
“That is the implications of double tragedy of not refining our crude oil in Nigeria. When international price increases, we suffer by paying higher prices due to increase in the landing cost of refined products.
“And when the international price falls, we suffer from a decrease in government revenues,” he said.
The economist called on the government to make emphatic efforts to repair the nation’s refineries and work harder on the diversification of the economy so as to achieve a meaningful national development.
In a separate interview, Dr Wale Adegbite, a former Chairman, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Ogun Chapter, said that an increase in the pump price of petrol would lead to inflation, pointing out that this would have crushing effects on the masses.
Adegbite added that this development would further reduce the purchasing power of Nigerians and improvise them.
The former MAN Chairman called on the CBN to reassess its monetary policies on how to deal with the rampaging inflation in the country.
“Pursuing very low interest rate may not be appropriate in fighting inflation. What is the point in pursuing growth when we lose everything to inflation,” he said.
NAN
