Tribune / Nigeria: Nigeria Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Tuesday, said President Muhammadu Buhari did not want prices of petroleum product to go up, adding that with the present economic challenges in the country, the president had no other option.
Nigeria Vice President Yomi Osinbajo
“If there is one person in Nigeria that believes that petroleum prices should not go up by N1, it is President Buhari,” Osinbajo asserted at a public presentation of “Anatomy of Corruption in Nigeria: Issues, Challenges and Solutions,” a collection of essays edited by Yusuf O. Ali, in Abuja.
He queried: “In the absence of foreign exchange and you have to import your refined petroleum, what are you left with?” adding that even if the nation’s refineries were in operation, they could only produce 40 per cent of the petrol requirement, hence the need to continue to import.
He lamented that the present administration was investigating the theft of about $15 billion from one sector alone.
According to him, this was an indication that much more would have gone on in the country in terms of corruption over the period.
“When you consider that today, Nigeria’s reserves stands at about $27 billion and we are investigating $15 billion from one sector alone, that is over half of the entire reserves of the country.
“We are investigating cases which shows that over $15 billion was lost in one type of contracts alone. We are not talking of oil contracts, we are talking of security-related contracts alone. We have not talked at all about oil contracts, several billions.
“We cannot look at it the same way as if it is just petty stealing. This is not just stealing the resource of the country, it is stealing the future as well.
“Let me just state one clear example. All through the period when Nigeria was earning over $100 to $115 in proceeds of oil for a period of almost five years, the external reserves of Nigeria remained much the same. It did not (significantly) increase at all, despite the very high earnings.
“That is why we have the situation that we find ourselves today. It is the external reserves that a country resorts to as a last resort in protecting its currency,” he said.
Speaking at a separate function, a public presentation of Professor Ladipo Adamolekun’s autobiography, “I Remember,” he explained why many states were unable to pay workers’ salaries, blaming it on less resources coming into the Federation Account.
“When we came into office, we tried to settle many of those debts, but the Federation Account is lower and we are unable to find the resources to shore up the Federation Account,” he said.
