A Budget Historian, Tunji Ogunyemi, believes that the amount of money budgeted for fuel subsidy annually is not sustainable as the Nigerian economy is being stressed.

The Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had said that the Federal Government had made a provision of 100billion Naira for the subsidy of PMS and 45.2billion Naira for kerosene subsidy in the 2015 budget.

Mr Ogunyemi, on the Thursday edition of Sunrise Daily, said that the continued budgeting of monies for regulating the pump prices of petroleum products has only enriched few Nigerians.

While admitting that removing the subsidy would cause end users some pains, he noted that the real beneficiaries of the subsidy have never been the masses but the middlemen.

He believes the Nigerian Government needs to “permit a situation in which importers face the full risk of the oscillating (oil) prices mechanism in the world” such that their prices are also dependent on happenings in the global oil market.

“This zero-risk system in which importers will be pressuring the Federal Government to pay subsidies and they do not just take any risk should be eliminated,” he said.

Speaking on the need to control the influence of middlemen in Nigeria’s oil sector, Mr Ogunyemi advised that government needs to permit some conglomerates or states to build and operate their own refineries in Nigeria, in order to cut off the need to import fuel.

“Establishing refineries need not be rocket science. It can be done by groups of states within Nigeria and it can be done perfectly in such a way that it will cut the need for importing fuel.”

He said that the reason Nigeria seemed to find it hard to manage the building of its refineries and regulate the issuance of licences to operate them is the lack of political will to sanction those who try to sabotage the Nigerian system.

Mr Ogunyemi also provided recommendations on the revitalisation of Nigeria’s power sector. The best solution, according to him is to ensure transparency.

He also said that there was a need to develop a legal framework to liberalise the sector and remove the total control of Government.