NEITI may investigate subsidy ‘fraud’, set to expose incorrect figures of daily petrol consumption

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) may covertly be investigating tentative subsidy ‘fraud’ after President Bola Tinubu terminated the subsidy regime in Nigeria. NEITI, seemingly set to expose claims of incorrect figures of daily petrol consumption claims, plans to “conduct research to assess actual petrol consumption in Nigeria.” The transparency initiative was of the view that the high figure of PMS consumption claimed by several government institutions, essentially, the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), was incorrect.

The Executive Secretary of NEITI, Ogbonnaya Orji, had on the sidelines of the Stakeholders Validation Workshop on the 2022 Annual Progress Report for Nigeria’s Extractive Industries in Abuja, emphasised that the removal of subsidy by President Tinubu would expose several other issues, noting: “one of those issues that we know will happen is the actual consumption figure.”
Ogbonnaya Orji had remarked: “For a very long time, my disposition has been for the removal of subsidy. And this government, right from day one has taken that bold step. There shouldn’t be any going back.
“We should move forward from there and then put in place a robust arrangement that will show a clear departure from the way and manner we have operated under subsidy. Nigerians want to see what will change when the subsidy is no more.
“And we have highlighted this because we know that subsidies put a lot of impediments on transparency and accountability in the management of revenues from the oil and gas industry over the years.”
Meanwhile, Nigerians are going through hard time since the subsidy removal, and President Tinubu is yet to take firm actions to minimise the hardship after the subsidy removal. The President has also not commenced the process of rehabilitating the refineries in the country for domestic processing of crude oil into petrol and other products to relieve the country the burden of importation and rising unemployment rate.