From Abdulfatah Babatunde
Nduka Obaigbena, the Chairman of ThisDay/Arise Media Group, has challenged the federal government to urgently fix all four refineries.
TheNewsZenith reports that Obaigbena made the remarks at the ongoing 20th All Nigeria Editors Conference (ANEC) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
According to him, if they want to encourage competition and stop monopolies in petroleum marketing, then they must fix the refineries.
He said if the government-owned refineries become operational, they would be able to compete with the Dangote refinery.
“I think we should keep our refineries going and then if you say you want to encourage competition or you want to stop the monopoly, the four refineries of NNPCL must come alive.
“If you have the four refineries of NNPCL competing with Dangote, then we have true competition.
“We challenge Bayo Onanuga, we challenge the Minister of Information to get the four refineries working.
“This is so we can have a level playing field and not allow the only one refinery working to be there.
“So let us fix Nigeria. That’s the first item on the agenda and work hard to ensure that we also protect our industries.
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“America or the West are used to free markets. But you now have a situation where tariffs are going to be used to curtail free markets. Are we ready to use tariffs to protect our industry?
“Are we going to protect one of the game changers in our economy, the Dangote Refinery from cheap inputs?
“If Dangote refinery fails, then we all fail. So, if we’re going to use tariffs or whatever it is to deal with any oil mafias, Nigeria is in a reset.
“We have reforms that are foot. And, unlike others, I do see that the future can be better if we don’t give the reform a human face. We should support the reform we should stay with the cause.
“But we have to support the poor and the vulnerable. So those are very important.
“Yesterday, to the shock of some of you, the Americans re-elected Donald Trump, sending mixed signals around the world.
“Is he going to have mass deportation, is he going to run a tariff regime to protect America?
“How will the World Trade Organisation react to a tariff regime? I think the world will change but are we ready?” TheNewsZenith quotes Obaigbena as saying.
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