HURIWA to Tinubu: Extend naira-for-crude structure to avoid fuel price increases.
The Human Rights Writers Association has called on President Bola Tinubu to continue the naira-for-crude contract between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and local refineries, particularly Dangote Refinery.
The group cautioned that terminating the agreement could result in a substantial increase in fuel costs and deepen economic hardship for Nigerians.
HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, issued a statement on Monday urging Tinubu to instruct his economic team to renegotiate the agreement to avoid more hardship on struggling people and businesses.
“In the spirit of the Sallah celebrations, and in light of the President’s and other public office holders’ public supplications to God as part of the end of the fasting and lenting period, we are requesting that President Tinubu direct his Coordinating Minister for the Economy and the Minister of Finance to reach a transparent and timely agreement to continue the naira-to-crude deal with local crude oil refineries, including the Dangote Petroleum refinery.
“We make this public supplication and appeal because any alteration to this deal would mean excruciating hardships and the massive affliction of poverty on millions of the already suffering, struggling and multidimensionally poor households,” according to the statement.
The naira-for-crude deal, which began in October 2024 and would expire on March 31, 2025, permitted local refineries to receive crude from NNPCL in naira.
With the arrangement already expired, oil marketers have forecasted a hike in petrol pump prices if it is not extended.
Onwubiko warned that rising fuel costs could drive small firms that rely on petrol generators to close, resulting in job losses and exacerbating poverty levels.
“HURIWA told President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that our assessment of the public perception of the failure to keep the implementation of the naira-to-crude deal showed that more and many more Nigerians would be thrown out of work given that the operational costs of running small and medium-sized businesses that depend on privately generated electricity power supply, which comes mainly from petrol-powered generators, means the immediate closure of hundreds of thousands of businesses.
He continued, “HURIWA stated that the most afflicted sector of society are the over 133 million multidimensionally poor households, according to even the old 2018 statistics data given by the National Bureau of Statistics.
“HURIWA reminded President Tinubu that last year, World Bank projected that several millions of Nigerians automatically became multidimensionally poorer than we were in 2018 because of the excruciating costs of living crisis in Nigeria.”
Citing the World Bank and the National Bureau of Statistics, HURIWA stated that over 133 million Nigerians are already categorised as multidimensionally poor, with growing living costs exacerbating their predicament.
The group encouraged Tinubu’s administration to act quickly, warning that ignoring economic realities could push millions into further misery.