5 Reason why Buhari may not stop Fuel Importation

One of the panacea to this seasonal oil crisis in the nation is if we could start refining our own crude locally without exporting it to  the foreign land, Unfortunately, we extract the crude to refine it in foreign land and then import the refined product, in higher price, for the Nigerians to use.

The new President-elect, Gen. Buhari, will certainly face a difficult task in this area when he assumes office. Below are five obstacles that may hinder the new administration's attempts to stop fuel importation. If the government can surmount this challenges, we will make a headway.

1. Our refineries are not yet ready:
With a refining capacity of over 450,000bpd that cannot even meet our domestic needs and operating at less than 30% mostly due to machine failure, our refineries are just not ready for the task ahead. So, it will be difficult to stop importation when we cannot provide the substance locally.

2. Government generates revenue from the process:
Am talking about the VAT and other charges levied on imported petroleum products. If we stop importing fuel today, there will be a significant drop in government revenue, and if other sources of government revenue remains constant, our budget deficit will rise, debt profile will rise and the future sufferings of Nigerians will rise.

3. Significant investments have been made into providing facilities for fuel importation:
Am talking about the facilities for transporting fuel to Nigeria, those for moving the products from the vessels into storage facilities, those for administration, etc. People invested money into them. Do you think they will be smiling when an attempt is make to cut off their source of income? The Cabals, now you can recall this statement during the fuel scarcity era

4. Fraudulent oil marketers are benefiting from the process:
Those who falsified their documents just to overcharge the government for subsidy, those who cause unnecessary delays in offloading petroleum products just so it can incure demourage, etc. All of them will come together to frustrate any attempt to stop fuel importation just as generator sellers are doing to our electricity generation companies. If you still don't understand, go and read the PwC report.

5. Risk of unemployment: All those people directly or indirectly employed as a result of the fuel importation business will face the risk of losing their jobs. They are among those praying that we should continue to import fuel.

You are free to add your own challenges