By Deborah Hassan
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has declared that Nigeria is broke, having lost its earnings to the negative impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on internally generated revenue and poor revenue generation from crude oil sales.
Making the declaration after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House on Monday, Sylva stated that revenue accruing to Nigeria has dropped by 60 per cent.
He said non-oil revenue has been underperforming and particularly noted that the revenue being generated by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) had also reduced drastically due to the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
The minister, while acknowledging that the quality of life of Nigerians has further depreciated with the steady declining revenue generation under the present administration, appealed for more understanding with a promise that government is determined to uplift the quality of life of the people.
Commenting on the increase in pump price of petrol, Sylva said Nigerians will get used to the recent deregulation of the pump price of PMS, just as they did with kerosene and diesel which are more important to the ordinary citizens than petrol, that is mostly used by the elite.
He noted that trucks that move food items from one part of the country to another use diesel, while kerosene also used by most of the Nigerian masses, has since been deregulated.
”The only explanation to everything we have said is that the country just could not afford subsidy anymore. It is unfortunate we are experiencing some of these things now. We will get by, I am sure when things stabilise, our earnings begin to improve, we will begin to see the benefits of what this government has done”, he said.
On the sudden increase in the price of petrol, he said: “Let us first agree, that these are not the best of times not only for Nigeria but for the global community.
“What we have said over and over again as a government is that government is no longer in the business of fixing pump price, that is the meaning of deregulation and stepping back on subsidy.
“Yes, we are very aware that this will result to some increase, but why do we have to do this, because it is clearly impossible for government to continue to subsidize”, the minister further said.
He added: ”I was just discussing with someone today that we just have to make a choice. If government were to continue with subsidy, it means, for example, that at some point we may not even have money, after subsidizing petrol, to pay salaries. You have to choose. It is very clear that today things are not as they were before”.
(NAN)