SUBSIDY REMOVAL ON KEROSENE PRODUCT; CONSEQUENCES ON CELESTIAL CHURCH OF CHRIST.
The Federal Government of Nigeria led by President Bola Tinubu has announced the total removal of Fuel Subsidy; furthermore the NNPC also released a new price of fuel price; it a known fact that NNPC is a limited liability company where citizens have access to invest their capital through the Nigeria Stock Exchange with external stakeholders determining the future of the company. This development was as a result of the uncontrolled situation in the downstream sector and failure to fund the subsidy of the Crude Oil; while one of the major affected sector was the diesel and kerosene product that will not benefit from the new subsidy program.
Kerosene is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households, the masses in our society are the major production benefiting wing of kerosene; but the replacement of cooking Gas as reduce the demand of production at majority of the filling stations; however the usage of Kerosene in Celestial Church of Christ is from the inception of the Church. The item is used in the Church to light the lamp on the main altar in the Church. While the implementation of the policy of NNPC as taken a negative impact in the supply of kerosene in the country holding to the fact that the (4) refineries under the control of NNPC have failed to produce the commodity.
The Federal Government has no plan for importation of kerosene to the country while this will seriously affect Celestial parishes to have access to the product in order to light lamps in our main altars.
Majority of parishes have been facing difficulty buying the product because the independent marketers in the country have abandon the demand of the product from their major marketers. The question who is; Will the Church not change from the use of kerosene lamp to electricity lamp?
It is an obvious fact that the Federal Government will not subsidize diesel and kerosene product, but focus on petroleum because of the exchange rate of dollar and the invasion by Russia of Ukraine. The benchmark of crude oil will continue to increase in countries who do not refine their products as OPEC can not control some of the major oil producing countries.
Some of the above explanation further exposed Celestial Church to look for alternative(s) for sustainability of our doctrines in a modern world policies.
