NLC
declares nationwide strike for Wednesday
� Three NNPC officials sacked over fuel import �
� New
fuel price not acceptable � Reps
By Mojeed Jamiu (Lagos)
Bassey Udo
and Uchenna Awom (Abuja)
Another national strike � with its inevitable
disruption to lives � has been declared to begin next Wednesday by the Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC) over the protracted dispute on frequent fuel price rises,
the latest of which was effected last week by marketers.
Against the background of tension,
the government has sacked three senior officials of the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over petroleum products import deals which
resulted in the loss of N29 billion in the last three years.
Until their sack, the three � Edna
Ankwuem, H. B. Abua and A. Balogun � worked as officials in the importation
department of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), an NNPC
subsidiary in charge of marketing and distributing petroleum products.
A committee set up by the government
last year to investigate allegations of high level dealings perpetrated by
marketers in fuel importation indicted the dismissed officials for non-billing
of some marketers in the consignment of products imported.
It was learnt in Abuja that the sack received the blessing
of President Olusegun Obasanjo who is said to have ordered further
investigation of the officials to uncover the ring of syndicates that may be
involved in the high crime.
NLC has directed all segments of
organised labour, civil society organisations, student and youth groups, market
women and the masses to prepare to join in the protests if the government fails
to revert to the pre-May 2004 price levels.
The clarion call was contained in a
15-point communiqu� it issued after its National Executive Council (NEC) met in
Abuja on Wednesday.
Also rejecting the new rates, the
House of Representatives on Wednesday�
said they are not acceptable to it and the Nigerian people.
Opposition to the latest hikes is
buttressed by feelers from the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS) that they may
stoke inflation from its current 17.8 level to as much as 22 per cent.
NLC President Adams Oshiomhole read
the communiqu�. He said after reviewing the decisions of last week�s Central
Working Committee (CWC) meeting, NEC was alarmed to note that rather than
heeding the demand for the withdrawal of the N1.50 price increase per litre of
petrol, the government and its agents have gone ahead to further raise the
price to between N50 in Lagos and N54 in Abuja, and as high as N76 in some
parts of the country.
Noting that prices of petroleum
products have been raised by more than 100 per cent by the Obasanjo
administration in the last five years, even before the latest one, NLC said it
views this as �very grave�, particularly the�
implications on the economy and the adverse effects on workers.
Oshiomhole said if the new prices
are allowed to stay the economy would be crippled, leading to more
unemployment, spiraling inflation and greater hardship on Nigerians. He
expressed regrets that a series of letters to Obasanjo, NNPC Group Managing
Director Funso Kupolokun and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency
(PPPRA) has not persuaded them to roll back the prices.
He argued that a fraction of the substantial
excess revenue now generated from soaring international oil prices should have
been used to stabilise domestic prices to assuage the suffering of the populace.
Oshiomhole called on the President
to demonstrate his commitment to the accountability and anti-corruption crusade
by disclosing the names of contractors involved in the maintenance of the four
refineries and the sanctions meted out to them for non-performance.
�Given the clear abdication of responsibility
by government, Nigerians should now take control of their destiny.� On the part of NLC, we have learnt not to
trust the government or fall for the tactics that may affect the realisation of
our collective goals�, he said.
Oshiomhole told newsmen later in an
interview: �Given the biting nature of the policy of fuel price increase and
the growing destitution it has imposed as well as the growing state of
hopelessness in the country, Nigerians would not continue to bear hardship
longer than midnight of Tuesday next week.
�By next Wednesday, if the President
does not find the will, and/or fails to reverse these prices, and given that
Nigerians would not be able to bear the pains and poverty this policy has
induced, we as NLC and as representatives of Nigerian workers, Nigerian working
families and our allies, will embark on a total nationwide strike�.
He urged Nigerians not to betray the
struggle against anti-people policies of the present administration, and
warned: �If any Nigerian decides to betray the struggle, they would be treated
as enemies of the people�.
The House of Representatives,
through its Committee on Refineries, urged the Petroleum Products Pricing
Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC) to tell marketers to immediately revert to the old prices.
The two government agencies, led by
PPPRA Executive Secretary Oluwole Oluleye and NNPC�s Abubakar Yar�Adua, were at
the House on the invitation of the committee to explain the reasons for the
latest increases.
The House mandated the committee to
liaise with the relevant agencies to effect reversal until such a time
acceptable pump prices will be worked out.
It also urged the government to
immediately start the process of�
rehabilitating the refineries so that fuel prices would be forced down,
since it had accepted deregulation of the down stream sector of the petroleum
industry.
Committee Chairman Peter Igbodo said
it is not justifiable for retailers to raise fuel prices considering the rate
at which NNPC sells it to them.
The price rise is expected to
trigger rises in inflation and interest rates.
FOS sources said in Lagos on Monday that inflation, now at
17.8 per cent, may hit 22 per cent when data for the April and May are compiled.
According to him, the consumer price
index is also expected to slide further from the March figures, which rose
significantly in the urban areas, whereas the reverse was the case in rural
areas where increases in the prices of both solid and liquid fuels had no
effect.
The figures are expected to jump
significantly in urban and rural centres in the reports for April and May. The
all-items index fell by 1.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2004, against the
4.0 per cent rise in the fourth quarter of 2003.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
said the continuous rise in inflation shows the effect of previous increase in
the prices of petroleum products with attendant consequences on the cost of
transportation and increase in the prices of other items, especially foodstuff.
Despite a recent CBN directive to
bank executives that banks should ensure that lending rates do not exceed four
per cent above the Minimum Rediscount Rate (MRR), as agreed upon last year,
some banks have described the position as unrealistic and so difficult to obey.
Cooperative Bank Chief Executive
Ariyo Ajaja disclosed in Lagos recently that the CBN stand on lower interest
rates is impracticable while Erastus Akingbola of Intercontinental Bank called for
a stakeholders� meeting to devise a holistic solution to the problem.
Many other bank bosses have equally
asked CBN to forget the tripartite agreement between it, the government and
banks in April 2003 towards the determination of real lending rates.
