Federal Government to embrace public-private partnership to set up new refinery- University Don advise

By Our Correspondent

 The Vice-Chancellor of Trinity University, Yaba, Lagos, Prof. Charles Ayo, has advised the Federal Government to set up new refinery through public-private partnership in order to surmount subsidy challenges.

Ayo, also a former Vice-Chancellor of Covenant University, Ota, gave the advice in an interview with the News men on Friday.

He was reacting to the recent statement by Mr Mele Kyari, Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, that petrol will be sold for between N320 to N340 per litre after the removal of subsidy from February, 2022.

Ayo said that the country had long history of subsidy removal which never led the nation to any better result.

The don noted that the hike in prices of petroleum products was largely responsible for various increase in price of consumer commodities.

He added that hiking the petroleum price would have immense effects on consumer commodities as there is nothing that goes up and comes down in the history of the country.

“The country cannot be doing the same thing, the same way and expects a better result,’’ Ayo said.

He said it was better for the country to have multiple functioning refineries to end the prolonged issue of subsidy problem.

The don suggested that the Federal Government could enter into public-private partnership to set up a refinery in the country.

“The country cannot continue to export crude oil and import refined one into the country because this has been a major problem leading to subsidy,” he said.

He appealed to Federal Government to direct some of the looted funds to solve major problems, like encouraging and empowering individuals to set up refineries in the country.

Ayo said that if the country was able to refined enough petroleum products in Nigeria, it could export some.

‘’Whenever there is hike in price, the country will benefit both from the crude oil and the refined ones it exports.’’

He added that if there was a crash in the petroleum price in the international market, the country would be able to crush the effect.

The don lamented that the country as one of the leading oil exporting should no longer allowed its internal consumption of petroleum to be subjected to external forces.

Ayo also stressed the need for the federal government to adequately ascertain what the country is subsiding.