People Reporters Reaching out to the People in Nigeria
*Suggest 3 points solution to quagmire
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said her continue opposition to c
constant increases in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) was a patriotic one as well as to reduce further hardship Nigerians are facing.
They warned Federal Government against a resistance by the citizens which could cause civil unrest.
This is coming following comment credited to the GMD of NNPC Mallam Mele Kyari that the price of petrol could jump as high as N320 and N340 from February 2022.
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Ayuba Wabba in a statement said Federal Government is not sincere in her quest to address the challenges with the energy sector.
According to comrade Wabba , for the GMD to announce planned increment on PMS when the ongoing meeting with Federal Government contradict the spirit of social dialogue , since talk between Federal Government and the organised Labour is ongoing.
“The conversation between the government and the people of Nigeria especially workers under the auspices of the trade union movement on the matter of fuel subsidy was adjourned sine die so many months ago.
Given the nationwide panic that has trailed the disclosure of the monologue within the corridors of government and foreign interests, the Nigeria Labour Congress wishes to posit that it continues to maintain its rejection of deregulation based on import driven model.
“It is difficult to convince Nigerian workers why our dear country is the only country among the OPEC member countries that cannot produce its own refined petroleum products and thus adopts the neo-liberal import production model of refined petroleum products.
“We wish to reiterate our persuasion that the only benefit of deregulation based on import driven model is that Nigerian consumers will infinitely continue to pay high prices for refined petroleum products. This situation will definitely be compounded by the astronomical devaluation of the Naira which currently goes for N560 to 1US$ in the parallel market.
“Thus, any attempt to compare the price of petrol in Nigeria to other countries would be set on a faulty premise as it would be akin to comparing apples to mangoes.
The contemplation by government to increase the price of petrol by more than 200% is a perfect recipe for an aggravated pile of hyper-inflation and astronomical increase in the price of goods and services.
“This will open a wide door to unintended social consequences such as degeneration of the current insecurity crises and possibly citizens’ revolt. This is not an outcome that any sane Nigeria wishes for.”
The NLC President further said the argument that the complete surrender of the price of petrol to market forces would normalize the curve of demand and supply as is being wrongly attributed to the current market realities with cooking gas, diesel and kerosene is very obtuse.
The union leader however urge Governments to Insulate the domestic consumers from the market pressure brought about by the free fall of the Naira by making arrangement with contiguous refineries not far from Nigeria to swap crude oil with refined petroleum products;
He also call for an “accelerate work on the rehabilitation of Nigeria’s four major refineries which are all currently operating at near zero installed capacity;. Establish empirical data on the quantity of refined petroleum products consumed daily by Nigerians.
“Establish empirical data on the quantity of refined petroleum products consumed daily by Nigerians”.
