By Ononye VC
The senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District,Sir Victor Umeh has called for a surgical operation at the Nigeria’s oil sector to sanitize it and turn around the system for cheap petroleum products to benefit the ordinary Nigerians.
The Senator was speaking in a recent Channels Television interview where he acknowledged that Nigerians have been suffering untold hardship over the increase in the pump price of petrol following the removal of subsidy.
Senator Umeh pointed out that though the removal of the subsidy had blocked where some few privileged ones milk Nigerians of huge sums of money,there was no arrangement to provide alternatives to cushion the effect so that the ordinary Nigerians would not suffer unnecessarily.
He said that the cost of living is biting very hard for every Nigerian be it middle,lower or upper class and that almost everybody is feeling the pinch unless those behind this matter.
“What is happening today is something that should not have happened and it is because those who are in position to take control of the situation have for selfish reasons,refused to do something about it.
There is no way anybody would not have expected a situation like this when the refineries are shot for many years.We don’t refine products but rely solely on importation for many years”,he pointed out.
Senator Umeh said further that there’s no way anybody can regulate or control prices of what he doesn’t produce.
“When the subsidy was removed and the pump price of petrol rose above N600 per liter,I granted interview and spoke about it and said that so long as we can’t get our refineries to work,we cannot get anywhere.
Umeh accused those managing the oil sector of abandoning their duties and responsibilities and making money out of the subsidy removal without thinking about the sufferings of the ordinary man on the street.
He said,”Some people are feeding fat from the Dollars they make from importation of PMS into the country and are not thinking about how to make the refineries work.They are making cheap money and Nigeria is bleeding to death.Those managing the oil sector since 2019 are still there and nothing has changed”, Senator Umeh lamented.
The National Assembly he said,will be resuming from vacation on the 17th of September 2024 and promised that on resumption,the National Assembly will wade into the matter pointing out that though the Assembly has some oversight functions over the oil sector,it cannot sack those employed by the Executive arm adding that there are those on the Executive arm who are not on vacation and have unlimited powers to deal with the situation.
He concluded by saying that,”If those who are supposed to run the oil sector efficiently are not able to do so,I don’t know what they are still doing there”.
