FG Blames Jonathan For Unending Fuel Scarcity

Immediate past President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan has again been accused by federal government as the cause of the current fuel scarcity traumatising every part of the country. Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who today put the blame on Jonathan said Nigerians who have been bearing the brunt of the current fuel scarcity were paying for the sins of the immediate past administration.

Fielding questions from State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Mohammed when asked what he would be telling Nigerians that have been complaining about the effect of the fuel scarcity on them saying ‎this is not the kind of change they envisaged when they voted President Buhari-led All Progressives Congress government in March, blamed it on Jonathan’s administration’s failure to make adequate provision for fuel subsidy.

He explained that out of the N674bn Supplementary Budget recently presented to the National Assembly, N522bn was for arrears of fuel subsidy which was incurred by the last administration.

According to him, “What I will be telling Nigerians is that what we met on ground is such that we are paying for the sins of the last administration. I am being very serious. You remember that about two weeks ago, we had to go to the National Assembly for a supplementary budget of N674 billion.

“Of that figure, N522billion was for arrears of fuel subsidy which was incurred as far back as August last year. One of the reasons for the fuel scarcity was the inability of the last government to make adequate provision for fuel subsidy. We do face some other logistic problems, but majorly we are paying for the sins of the last administration.”

The Information and Culture Minister however assured that the Federal Government was doing its best to correct the wrongs. He said the first thing the government did was that, unlike before when marketers used to ‎import the major percentage of fuel, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has been involved in importation because some of the marketers had stopped importing for a couple of months.

He said the fuel currently being distributed was imported by the NNPC. He also said the present administration inherited vandalised pipelines which are currently being fixed. “We also inherited the vandalisation of the pipelines which has made it impossible for us to even transport the fuel.

“In tanks today, we have 14 days reserve and in off tank, we have 10 days reserve. The issue is not non-availability of the product, it is the distribution, because of pipelines that have been vandalised and the gridlock in Lagos. It takes about five days for anybody to take fuel with tanker in Lagos. As at two days ago, this matter has been resolved. The Mosinmi pipeline has been secured and it has led to the improvement in the distribution.”

Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, also said relevant organs of government are already taking actions on the negative effects of the recent ban of the use of ATM cards by Nigerians in some countries. The ministers attention were drawn to the difficulty being faced by Nigerian students abroad based on the ban.

“We are taking actions on the development. Only that relevant government organs are not here to say specifically what they are doing about it but I know actions are being taking,” Udoma assured.