Calls for reversal
The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) has accused the Federal Government of extorting the downtrodden Nigerians masses to favour the market forces.
The union while reacting to the recent increased in the price of Petroleum Motor Spirit(PMS), warned that Nigerians are already facing hardship as a result of the coronavirus and so such move would only add to their suffering.
“We in NASU see it as extortion of the downtrodden masses of this country in favour of market forces. It is not only unjust but insensitive. The action has added to the hardship of workers and ordinary Nigerians. We, therefore, call for an immediate reversal by Government”.
According to a statement by the general secretary of NASU, Comrade Peters Adeyemi, the union believes the increase was a World Bank conditionality for granting the government of Nigeria a loan.
Comrade Adeyemi said “the Bank has never been quiet about its desire to see that the Federal Government stops the so-called subsidy on petroleum products.
“NASU will not allow itself to be carried into or get involved in the stale discussions about how market prices of petroleum products, especially petrol are arrived at, because we regard Government agencies’ figures on this matter as dubious and the positions of bureaucrats in the petroleum industry on them as very insincere.
“The bureaucrats heading these agencies and their collaborators in the private sector of the petroleum industry will never allow our refineries to work. In the whole politics of the import price of petroleum products, be it under subsidy regime or removal of subsidy in favour of market forces to determine retail prices in the country, it is these same bureaucrats in the petroleum industry and their private-sector collaborators who will always be the winners while the masses and the nation are the losers.
They prefer the importation of refined petroleum products against refining the products locally for the simple reason that it gives them the opportunity to continue to build up their foreign currency accounts offshore, which they hold and operate through proxies.
Successive governments in the country have always been held hostage by these corrupt bureaucrats and their collaborators in the private sector of the oil industry.
They have deprived the country of getting the much needed foreign exchange, through the sale of refined petroleum products to our neighboring countries. Rather, the country is losing foreign exchange through the importation of the products.
We do not see this wickedness of the ruling class over workers and the masses of this country coming to an end soon. Political change of batons from one political party to the other has never and will never bring about a change in the character of the ruling class. All the political parties are opposite sides of the same coin. Therefore, no one should be surprised to find politicians who are members of a political party in the morning, becoming members of the opposition party in the evening.
They announce with fanfare, their membership of the opposing political party, which they were calling names in the morning of the same day. The reason is that our political space is devoid of ideology. Their common denominator is that they are all predators of our commonwealth, corrupt and dubious exploiters of the masses.
The political ruling class, be they in the ruling party or opposition parties and their class collaborators in public bureaucracy as well as their cronies in the private sector, do not care about the price of petroleum products because like taxes, they do not buy these products with their hard-earned money. They are driven in vehicles bought and fueled for them by Governments and companies.
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They live in Government and companies’ accommodations having installed generators that provide constant electricity for their household use. They would have dubiously and corruptly amassed sufficient resources to meet the needs of their family members to the third generation before they leave the office.
We are always told that the whole issue surrounding the removal of subsidy if actually any exists, is to free resources for the Government to do other things that will lead to the economic growth of the country.
We in NASU see any talk about economic growth without accompanying economic development as dubious. Economic development has to do with citizens’ quality of life and living standards often measured using the human development index, which considers literacy rates, life expectancy, and poverty rates. All we hear daily from Government economists is Gross Domestic Products (GDP).
Unfortunately, GDP does not include intrinsic development factors such as leisure time, environmental quality, or freedom from oppression. It is a high time the quality of life of citizens is taken seriously by the Government.
In view of the fact that we are always reminded by Government officials about ongoing practices in the international arena, we call on Government and its officials to tell us which oil-producing country has increased the price of petroleum products during this period of COVID -19 pandemic.
While COVID-19 and economic crisis have hit all Nigerians, both rich and poor, farmers, workers, and the downtrodden masses are the worst victims. At a time when other countries of the world are making cash transfers and taking other palliative measures to reduce the effect of the pandemic on their citizens, bureaucrats in the oil industry and their collaborators in the private sector of the industry have succeeded in pitching the Government against the people through this ill-advised decision, that is going to exacerbate the already precarious economic situation of workers and the downtrodden in the society.
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The effect of the increase on workers is in two folds. One, workers pay directly, through direct purchase of the product for their vehicles and generators and the other indirectly, due to the rise it is already causing in the prices of transportation on the very poor roads, consumer goods, and essential services. This increase cannot be justified especially at this time”.
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