Civil Rights advocacy Group: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to use his good offices to ensure the continuous implementation of the naira-to-crude-deal between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company limited and the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and other Indigenous refineries because any change in this arrangement would automatically result in sudden and indiscriminate hikes in the pump prices of Petroleum products.

HURIWA appealed to PresidentTinubu thus: “In the spirit of the Sallah celebrations and given the public shows of supplications to God by the President and other public office holders as part of the end of the fasting and lenting period, we are praying President Tinubu to direct his coordinating minister for the economy and the minister of Finance to transparently and rapidly reach agreement to continue the naira-to-crude-deal with local crude oil refineries including the Dangote Petroleum refinery.

The Rights group added: “We make this public supplicatikn 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.

HURIWA argued that political leadership is not about theatrics or empty rhetorics but leadership ought to be embedded in the virtues of compassion, care for humanity and implementation of economic policies with humane face. “It is only when the interests of the greatest percentage of the citizens are satisfied that a central or regional governments can be assessed to have kept faith with the constitutionally guaranteed principles of transparency, accountability and promotion of the public good. The security and welfare of the citizenry is the primary lawful duty of government.”

In a media statement endorsed by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA told President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that from 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 scale businesses that depend of privately generated electricity power supply which come basically from petrol powered generators, means immediate closure of hundreds of thousands of businesses and eventual dismissal of thousands of private sector workers.

The Rights group affirmed that even those of our citizens working in federal agencies and state government agencies would be in severe difficulties to meet up with the anticipated hikes in transportation and costs of living as a result of upward adjustments in the prices of Petroleum products and the persistent poor salaries that these public sector workers earned.

HURIWA affirmed that practically and sincerely speaking, there is a general climate of public anxiety not just  in the downstream arm of the oil and gas sector as operators await the decision of the Federal Government on the naira-for-crude deal between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.

HURIWA argued basically that the most affected segment of the society are the over 133 million multidimensionally poor households going by even the old 2018 statistical data released 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.

HURIWA recalled that the six-month naira-to-crude-deal, which started in October 2024, officially ends today, Monday, March 31, 2025. The deal’s extension or complete halt is still being discussed by the parties involved. However, it was gathered on Sunday that the committee responsible for the negotiations has yet to resolve on the matter. As this lingers, the effect is now felt in the pump prices of refined petroleum products.

HURIWA recalled that Petrol has increased from about N860/litre to over N930/litre within one week. Dealers blamed this on the failure of the Federal Government to extend the naira-for-crude deal between the NNPCL and the Dangote refinery.

Our marketers also projected further hike in petrol price. They said the cost may hit N1,000/litre in weeks if nothing is done about the naira-for-crude deal that earlier helped in checking the rise in petrol prices.

Meanwhile, barring any last-minute change, the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote refinery is expected to shut down its petrol-producing unit for maintenance. According to Reuters, the maintenance, which may occur in June, will last for 30 days.

HURIWA is therefore advocating humane and compassionate governance from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu whose draconian and toxic anti-poor economic policies have automatically thrown millions of people into destitution, mass hunger, unemployment, economic depression and these unfortunate situations are exactly what a government elected by all Nigerians should strive by every means humanly possible to eradicate.

HURIWA said the ball is now in the court of president Tinubu’s government not to ignore the expanding frontiers of mass poverty that any further hike in the pump price of petrol would bring unto millions of Nigerian already overstretched households. HURIWA said it would be hypocritical that President Tinubu and high profile public office holders were shown on public media of mass communication praying to God for protection, only for these publicly ‘praying’ leaders to churn out poverty-stricken and poverty inducing economic policies on Nigerians.