The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has blamed the over-reliance on imported fuel for the high cost of petroleum products, thereby creating the need for subsidy.
NSE President?Mustafa Shehu, in a statement on Friday in Abuja, also blamed the weak value of the naira in relation to the U.S. dollar for the negative impact on the national economy.
The government, he said, should reconsider its decision on the removal of fuel subsidy until “urgent steps” were taken to implement measures that would make subsidy irrelevant.
The steps, he said, entailed the reactivation and prioritisation of all existing refineries and the construction of additional ones to make up for the deficit on demand.
Shehu also recommended the “dedication of some defined level of crude oil to all local refineries at agreed concessionary prices, initiation and completion of emergency mass transit transportation systems in all major cities and completion of all ongoing power sector projects”.
In addition, he called for “a sincere fight against corruption, reduction in the cost of governance, and a deliberate policy for the utilisation of indigenous professionals for the development of infrastructure”.
The NSE president further proposed that facts-based, transparent impact analysis should always be carried out as a prelude to the initiation of any landmark or major economic or policy decision.
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