Former Governor of Cross River State and the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Donald Duke, has said that he will reduce the pump price of fuel to ₦300 per litre if elected as President.
Duke, who made the declaration during an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday, said he would not inherit President Bola Tinubu’s policies during his presidency.
He said, “I will try and bring it to about ₦300. It sounds so outlandish, but I have given you the arithmetic because if you allocate 600,000 barrels, if that is what is consumed daily, allocate that to yourself; the other 1,000,000 you can sell it.
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“I won’t inherit his (Tinubu) policies; you know, for me, productivity is everything, as I said, within a safe and orderly environment,” the former Cross River governor said.
“The subsidy regime thing, this whole scam…I’m going to price petroleum products for local consumption at production cost, not at the international market because that’s so far rigid. It sounds too simple and basic, but it’s so deep because you have been given a production cost of $45, the international price.
“That’s $45, including processing and refining; otherwise, it is about $30, and it’s sold back to your own people at $100 and more. You don’t want them to breathe, and your people are known to be the poorest in the world; they can’t afford it.
“The basic minimum wage is 70,000; will your salary go in just filling a tank of fuel or some fuel? So, we have got to look at it”, Duke said.
According to Duke, the insecurity crisis the country is facing now is a result of a collapsed economy.
“If your family member is kidnapped, you will do everything you can to get them out. The point is, how did we get there? In the 1980s, our population was there in the mid-70s; our budget was 25 million; today our population has tripled. Forty-six years after, our population is about 230 million, they say.
“Our budget is still in the 20s; forget the trillion they mention, so the real value has come down, so what you are seeing is the symptoms of a collapsed economy. Even in 1980, our budget was not robust enough to cater for our population, so you hardly heard of kidnapping then, but now it has become a major thing because there is pressure, you see, because of the inadequacy; people will do whatever they can to survive, so there is banditry, kidnapping, all those things,” he said.
