By ZAKAA LAZARUS
The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has expressed serious concern over the rising cost of the pump price of petrol across the country.
In a statement signed by its President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, the Congress said the development has inflicted incalculable damage to wages and the wellbeing of Nigerians.
“In mega urban cities where petrol is readily available, the cost ranges from N1,430. In less accessible areas, the cost is much worse. This has inflicted incalculable damage to not only wages but our state of being as a people and as a nation.” Ajaero lamented.
The NLC noted that it is an established fact that when transportation costs go up, everything else follows, including school fees, rents, tariffs and foodstuff.
“These new costs continue to inflict or deepen poverty among the populace, stressing the quality of life to the limits,” Ajaero said.
He added that the new surge came at a time government’s pressure on marketers to reduce pump price to reflect crude prices in the international spot market was beginning to yield dividend.
Ajaero said though the new wave is caused by the resurgence of conflict in the Gulf, Nigeria’s situation need not be this bleak, given that the country is an oil-producing nation with sufficient local refining capacity, even if substantially private.
“As a nation, and as a people endowed with enormous fossil resources, we are deserving of a certain level of protection or buffer against the gales from the Gulf, and indeed, other gales.”
As part of creating this buffer, the NLC urged the Federal Government to:
- Immediately give reasonable wage awards to workers;
- Sell sufficient crude in Naira to local refineries;
- Expand national storage capacity to meet energy emergencies and security needs.
According to the Congress, these measures will create jobs, economic value and help deal with mutating security challenges.
“There is nothing wrong with government subsidising the needs of citizens, especially in emergency situations like this. At the moment, there is no oil-producing country we know of that has not intervened or come up with sustainable palliatives in one way or the other in these perilous times.”
The NLC noted that government is making extra money in the international spot market of between USD35 and 40 per barrel above the budgeted figure, which translates to trillions of Naira a month, and ought to be satisfied with the windfall.
On a long term basis, the Congress expressed concern that local refineries are importing crude, describing it as unreasonable and unacceptable as it defeats the logic and purpose of local capacity.
“We are of the view that a government that seeks re-election in the next few months cannot afford to stand and watch marketers inflict suffering on the citizenry in the name of deregulation. Labour has an obligation to speak out or act accordingly,” the statement concluded.
