Banker Proffers Solutions to Fuel Crisis
Energy
By Nnamdi Duru
Worried about the endless confrontation between the organised labour movement and the Federal Government of Nigeria over fuel price increases, the United Bank for Africa (UBA) unit President of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI), Comrade Samuel Eniola has suggested ways out of the problem.
He wants government to scrap regulatory authorities in the downstream petroleum sector including the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and repeal relevant legislation according the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)monopoly rights.
Eniola made these proposition in his address at the 2004 version of the Annual Productivity Seminar organised by the UBA branch of the senior bankers' association in Lagos recently.
Regretting the loss of man hours as a result industrial action called by the labour movement in protest to each round of fuel price hike, Eniola maintained that deregulation "can only work where the refineries are in good shape especially if those maintaining the refineries are honest and transparent". He added that "deregulation cannot work also with fuel importation where 90 percent are poor like Nigeria".
While restating workers opposition to the comparison between Nigeria and other developed countries on the pricing of petroleum products, he alleged that a "few powerful and influential people are manipulating the petroleum products market to extract huge profits at the mercy of the masses".
Eniola therefore proffered solutions to the crisis, asking government to scrap regulatory authorities in the downstream oil sector while reviewing the monopoly rights presently being enjoyed by NNPC in the petroleum industry.
"Government should repeal the antimonopoly laws shielding the NNPC to give way for the privatisation and revival of the nation's four refineries.
Private refineries should be tolerated or encouraged by the government. Government should if possible scrap parasites body like PPPRA and the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF)", he suggested.
The branch president equally asked government build new refineries instead of lamenting spending over $800 million on rehabilitation of existing ones, saying, "you can look at the above scenario, the cost benefit analysis.
Reviewing the background to the perennial fuel crisis in the country, the Eniola noted, "there has been worsening standard of living, mass poverty and suffering of the citizenry, recurring fuel scarcity and frequent price hikes".
He paraphrased government argument that it has spent close to $800 million to fix the four refineries with a combined refining capacity of less than half a million litres of fuel per day without success as against the 30 million litres of fuel consumed by Nigerians daily.
He also recalled that government agencies blamed delays in privatising the nation's refineries on the reluctance of major oil marketers in the refineries while NNPC subsidises local consumption to the tune of N450.
He however stated his belief that if government takes his suggestions, "there will be end to government labour
confrontation over perennial fuel price likes" in the country.
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