(Oluwole Farotimi)
The Minister of State for Petroleum Dr. Ibe Kachikwu yesterday asserted that the federal government will consider the option of dialogue with the Niger-Delta militants currently bombing oil instalations in the oil rich region instead of rolling out military tanks against the militants.
Kachikwu flanked by Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed disclosed this during an interactive session with a coalition of civil societies in Lagos, said the nefarious activities of militants is currently sabotaging efforts being made by the government to revamp the nation’s economy.
“The military barrels cannot stop or solve problem of militancy in the Niger Delta region. I will have to go back to my brothers, they are our brothers we will go and dialogue with them,” Kachikwu said.
Speaking on why payment of subsidy was no longer possible in Nigeria to rights activities, he said the country lost over N5 trillion naira to subsidy in five years, explaining that subsidy had to be removed from petrol because the policy was no longer sustainable as the government is broke.
Dwelling on the economic situation in the country, kachikwu pointed out that ministers of the present government do not have accommodation, adding that President Muhammadu Buhari cannot approve N20 million for ministers rent due to low government income.
On why the fuel queues disappeared immediately the government pegged the pump price of petrol at N145 per litre, Kachikwu said “queues disappeared because everybody who had incentive to hoard were no longer hoarding and those who were in the business other than the hoarding petroleum business for hoarding sake left the business because there was no need to hoard. Again we were having pretentious number of consumption for subsidy payment. ”
Kachikwu said if Nigerians want fuel at the cheapest rate, then citizens must not complain about roads, security and other infrastructure.