President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday in Abuja appreciated Nigerians and Organized Labour for restraint, understanding and patience as the country tackles myriad of economic challenges, assuring that the Federal Government is working hard to ameliorate the situation.
Speaking at a virtually held event at the State House to unveil National Gas Expansion Programme and National Auto-gas Roll-out Initiative, President Buhari expressed deep appreciation to Nigerians for their patience and Organized Labour for its maturity and patriotism.
The President urged Nigerians to embrace the use of gas as an alternative to fuel, noting that it is no longer news that the vast Natural Gas resources, which Nigeria is endowed with has hitherto been used sub-optimally as a result of a dearth of gas processing facilities and infrastructural connectivity for effective and optimal domestic utilization.
President Buhari said the deregulation of the downstream sector had exposed many to price volatilities in the global market, urging attention to more affordable alternative for energy, especially with Nigeria’s heavy reserve.
The President said the auto-gas initiative will lead to increased domestic gas utilization and enrich the trajectory of national economic growth and development.
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The president encouraged everyone to embrace gas in form of LPG, CNG and LNG as an alternative fuel for autos and other prime-movers.
He directed the Minister of State on Petroleum Resources to commence the process of hand over of mass transit buses to Organized Labour as part of government’s pledge to continue providing support that will ease the transportation challenges Nigerians are facing at this time.
In his remarks at the event, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva said the Ministry is focusing on development of skills, technology and manpower as well as growth in the utilisation of LPG, CNG and LNG.
He added that the National Gas Expansion programme which was initiated this year to boost the utilization of gas in the short and medium term “is expected to create two million jobs per annum, promote skills acquisition and enhance technology transfer in addition to growing the nation’s GDP.”
The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kolo Kyari informed that from 2016 to 2019, the Federal Government had spent over three trillion Naira subsidizing the pump price of petroleum products particularly PMS, insisting that the subsidy regime did not benefit the masses that the President is passionate about.
He added that the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have made it impossible to continue with the onerous subsidy regime
(Editor: Nkoli Omhoudu).
