Oil subsidy: Will APC allow President Buhari to play ball?

One of those few Nigerians well grounded in the nefarious and technically slippery Nigerian oil terrain is the Managing Director of Capital Oil, IfeanyiUbah. He is a colossus in the industry, mostly at the downstream sector. He has invested heavily in the promotion of the trade. He knows all the department of the sector. He has made stupendous wealth from moving the “black gold” product from one place to another. Yes, the gossip in some quarters is that the man, by this trade, is richer than his home state of Anambra in the South East of Nigeria.  If a man of this resume speaks on any subject matter within the industry, l think it will be the principle of economic wisdom for people to listen. If we [Nigerians] fail to give thought to his comment, again strictly on oil matters, we shall be doing so to our own collective peril. IfeanyiUbah was quoted recently as urging President Muhammadu Buhari “to stop subsidising petrol and probe oil marketers whose actions almost led to the shutdown of the country recently”. Two things played out here that need urgent and critical evaluation. First, is the urgent need for the Federal Government to deregulate the industry by total removal of oil subsidy, and the second, according to Ubah, is “probing the oil marketers”.  Let us for now step down the call for probing the oil marketers while we consider for serious adoption the removal of the subsidy. I am not saying that Ubah’s “wise” call for probing the oil marketers should be entirely discarded. Read more on vanguard.