Her inability to answer the questions put to her on the fuel subsidy forced the committee to reschedule their investigation.
Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, on Tuesday forced a reschedule of the Senate’s investigation into the management of the oil subsidy, after repeatedly dodging questions from a Senate joint committee at a meeting that lasted more than two hours.
Alison-Madueke answered no question conclusively- a movenoted by the lawmakers- on details of how government subsidies on fuel products have been managed for years.
“Members are not satisfied with all the answers you have given today and will like you to come back,” Magnus Abbey, the Chair of the Senatejoint committee, told the Minister.
However, the committee gaveherhints on how to answer some of the questions put to her, and also gave her the liberty of choosing when to meet with the committeeagain.
The joint committees on Petroleum, Appropriation, and Finance are probing the sourcing and spending of trillions of Naira in government oil subsidy for the pastyears, amid increasing controversy overthe government’s plan to discontinue the policy by January 2012.
The Senate said explanations were required on how the government funded the 2011 subsidy with over
N1.2 trillion, whereas the budget appropriated only N240 billionto subsidy.
At the Tuesday session which was also attended by Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, lawmakers askedAlison-Maduekewhy the subsidy figure continued to rise to more than a trillion and where theunbudgeted differential was sourcedfrom.
After a winding explanation of details which the lawmakers said were not useful to them, the Minister blamed the increase on the continuous rise in daily consumption of fuel, constant rise of crudeprice as well as the increase of Naira to Dollar exchange rate.
She maintained that the removal of subsidy was the best option for the nation, conceding that the present management of the process only empowered the middle to upper class Nigerians.
“It is only people like you and I, who can keep 10 cars in the garage, who have four five cars in our convoy with pilot cars, that actually benefit from subsidy,” she said. “The transportation means that benefit the masses are mass transit that use diesel.”
However, when confronted with details from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency(PPPRA) thatthe daily consumption level had actually been on the decrease, the Minister said further details could onlybe provided by subordinate agencies under the Petroleum Ministry.
According to Senator Bukola Saraki, the PPPRA figures showed that domestic consumption, instead of increasing, dropped from 43 million litres a day in 2010, to 40 million in 2011.
Also, using figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria, he countered the Minister’s claims onthe exchange rateand oil price.
The lawmakers said the Minister could not answer any of the questions which she constantly parried to officials in the Ministry. She is to appear on a later date alongside the Finance Minister.
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