Nigeria: Press zooms in on assurance by govt that economic hardships will be over soon, others

APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The assurance by President Bola Tinubu to Nigerians that the economic hardships occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy will soon be over dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Punch reports that President Bola Tinubu in his New Year message on Monday, urged the citizens to remain unbowed as tough times never last.
He assured Nigerians that the economic hardships occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy will soon be over.
Tinubu noted that every one of his steps and decisions taken since his assumption of office on May 29 have been in the interest of the country.
“Though the past year was a very challenging one, it was eventful in so many ways. For our country, it was a transition year that saw a peaceful, orderly and successful transfer of power from one administration to another, marking yet another remarkable step in our 24 years of unbroken democracy,” he said
PUNCH Online reports that the President, during his inaugural address at Eagle Square, Abuja, shortly after he was sworn in as the 16th President of Nigeria, announced the removal of fuel subsidy, saying “Subsidy is gone.”
Justifying his decision, he maintained that the fuel subsidy had to end because the country could not maintain it.
He added that the trillions of naira spent yearly to sustain the subsidy were meant to better the healthcare and transportation sector, schools, housing, and national security, among others.
However, Nigerians bemoaned the effect of the removal of the subsidy as food prices and the cost of living skyrocketed.
The newspaper says that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has commenced the supply of crude oil for the test-running of the Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited, the NNPCL officials told The PUNCH on Sunday.
Oil marketers confirmed the development and stated that the plant would supply refined Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, Automotive Gas Oil, otherwise known as diesel, as well as other products to 12 states including Abia, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, and Delta, among others.
The NNPCL stated that the ongoing test-running of the plant would be completed shortly, adding that commercial production of refined products would also begin shortly.
This came as experts and downstream operators stated that though the cost of refined products would reduce once the Port Harcourt and Dangote refineries start pumping out products, it would not lead to a massive price crash.
On December 21, 2023, the Federal Government announced the mechanical completion of rehabilitation work on the Area-5 Plant of the Port Harcourt Refining Company in Rivers State.
It said the first phase of the plant had been completed, as the facility would start refining 60,000 barrels of crude oil daily after the Christmas break.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, had stated that the first phase of the PHRC was completed on December 20, 2023, adding that refined products’ production would commence after the Yuletide.
“This is to announce to Nigerians that in fulfilment of our pledge to complete phase one of the Port Harcourt refinery by the end of 2023, and the subsequent streaming of phase two in 2024, we happily announce the mechanical completion of flare start-up on December 20, 2023.
“This heralds the commencement of the production of petroleum products after the Christmas break. We want to thank Nigerians for their patience and trust in the NNPC to deliver on our promise and mandate in the rehabilitation of our refineries,” the minister stated.
The Guardian reports that the Nigerian Government has perfected plans to put one million gas-powered vehicles on the road by 2027, at an average yearly rate of 250,000 vehicle conversions.
The government also indicated its resolve to establish 40,000 auto gas conversion workshops and create 750,000 jobs by 2027, across the emerging Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) value chain.
This was disclosed at CNG Stakeholders and Investors’ Forum held in Abuja at the weekend, tagged: ‘Nigeria’s CNG Revolution: Harnessing Opportunities for a Sustainable Future,’ organised by the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative, (PCNGi).
In his presentation, tagged: ‘A Comprehensive Overview of Nigeria’s CNG Ecosystem,’ Project Director and CEO of Presidential CNG Initiative, Michael Oluwagbemi, said that given the characteristics of CNG and its benefits as a cheaper fuel, the strategic vision guiding the initiative is to alleviate the cost of living for Nigerians by significantly reducing the cost of transportation, and ultimately improving the standard of living with a cleaner and safer fuel.
He said: “In all of these, our strategic objectives are very clear: How do we reduce the cost of transportation for the common man? How do we make Nigeria’s gas work for him or her? How do we ensure that this gas working for Nigeria gives Nigeria an economic advantage?”
On the viability of the framework that has been adopted by PCNGi for the implementation of the CNG initiative, Oluwagbemi highlighted the comprehensive approach covering the industry’s demand and supply sides, saying: “We’re not just focusing on conversion centres but also incentivising investment on the supply side, taking an end-to-end approach.”
He mentioned specific collaborations with the Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria (GACN) and its partners to ensure sufficiency on the upstream side, while the initiative engages the organised commercial transport operators’ network to integrate six million commercial vehicles into the CNG ecosystem.
The newspaper says against the backdrop of tougher projections for the New Year, economists and allied professionals have said Nigerians could be given a soft landing with the right policy formulation, ruthless implementation, as well as a clear departure from the fiscal indiscipline that marked the previous year.
From the energy sector to capital market, and maritime to labour, the economy seems to be at a crossroads. Experts, however, said there are prospects that the country’s negative trajectory could be the pivot to a clean slate to begin a new growth. The caveat is that the authorities would need to be intentional in charting the new course.
They have called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who will mark his first anniversary in May, to provide the much-needed exemplary leadership to steer the country from collapse and prevent the current doom loop.
Already, the federal government spends almost 100 per cent of its retained revenue servicing its debt, which accounts for a larger part of the outstanding N87.9 trillion. Tinubu lamented the cost of debt servicing last weekend when he appealed to the Senate to approve securitisation of the outstanding N7.388 trillion Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) overdraft to the government in addition to N22.7 trillion earlier restructured.
Besides the debt overhang, the government is also battling with worrisome headline inflation, which has hit 28.2 per cent, low and falling public revenue, a challenged labour market that is turbo-charged by ‘exiting’ companies, conflict between the organised labour as well as government among other issues.
Of course, not one of the challenges has gone with last year. Subject-matter experts, however, think new approaches and more creative handling could make some difference in how the issues affect the people, and perhaps, set the stage for trend reversal.
GIK/APA