|
 Daily
Independent Online.
* Wednesday, June 16, 2004.
House of Reps to recall
members over fuel crisis
• Fuel marketers
re-adjust price to N42 per litre
• NLC strike costs airlines,
FAAN N2.5 billion
By
Chuks Isiwu,
Habib Aruna.
Rotimi
Durojaiye (Lagos)
Uchenna Awom
(Abuja)
and Gbenga
Faturoti (Osogbo)
There
are strong indications that the House of Representatives may hurriedly
recall its members on recess to discuss issues surrounding the fuel price
crisis. A likely supplementary Appropriation Bill from the Presidency is
also on the agenda.
Committee on
Media and Public Affairs Chairman, Abike Dabiri, confirmed the plan on
Tuesday. She said reconvening the House is based on the thinking of the
majority of members who are worried about the state of the nation and
about complaints by their constituents on the suffering in the land.
Besides, she
said the on-going discussion with President Olusegun Obasanjo on the
possibility of him submitting an Appropriation Bill to subsidise the
price of fuel makes it expedient to recall members for an emergency
session.
According to
her, feelers from Aso Rock suggest that the President is strongly
disposed to the supplementary budget option as an immediate palliative
for biting hardship caused by his economic reforms.
According to
Dabiri, the House has realised that it would no longer remain indifferent
to growing complaints from the people, stressing that the leadership is
currently meeting to take a decision on the matter.
The House is
currently on six weeks’ recess from which it will resume on July 20.
It did not
take a resolute stand on the face-off between government and Labour over
the fuel price brouhaha, which led to a national strike, called off at
the weekend.
Most Lagos
fuel stations on Tuesday adjusted to a price of N42 and above for a litre
of petrol as relative ease returned to supply.
The
development came as the National president of the Petroleum and Natural
Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Louis Brown
Ogbeifun, insisted that the only solution to the perennial fuel crisis is
the repair of the four refineries in Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt, and
the building of new ones.
The view is
supported by a member of the board of trustees of the ruling People’s
Democratic Party (PDP), Bode Olajumoke, who also urged the government to
re-activate the refineries as a panacea to the lingering fuel troubles.
Olajumoke,
fielding questions from newsmen during his brief visit to Osun State,
observed with regrets that Nigeria, the sixth largest oil-producing
nation, could be bogged down by incessant fuel crises.
Time-conscious
aviation industry may have suffered an estimated N2.5 billion loss in the
three-day national strike last week, going by figures sketched on Tuesday.
Such an
amount would have been incurred by about 41 airlines operating scheduled,
non-scheduled and cargo flights together with the Federal Airports
Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
The strike
was called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to protest recent hikes in the prices of
petroleum products.
Airlines
suffered huge loses on their daily operations running into about N2
billion, with FAAN alone losing about N500 million while the imbroglio
lasted.
The airlines’
losses were occurred largely in the cargo sections at the various
airports. Goods were stranded as workers stayed at home.
Depending on
the configuration, a Boeing 737 DC-9 may carry up to 130 passengers and a Boeing 727 can
accommodate 150.
A one-way
journey on the lucrative Lagos-Abuja route costs between N9, 000 and N10,
000 while Lagos-Maiduguri attracts N23, 000.
Some airlines
make about five return journeys daily, fetching between N1.3 million and
N1.5 million in income.
An official
of one of the airlines said although the strike has been called off, it
would take another one week for export and normal activities to resume at
the cargo sheds of some of the airports. “Put in financial terms, we lost
about N6.5 million during the strike,” he said.
Another
domestic operator estimated the cost on his company at N32.5 million.
He said the
impact would be reflected at the monthly report of the airlines to the
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN).
FAAN is
believed to have lost about N500 million in landing fees at the 21
airports.
Its gold pot,
the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, where the authority makes
about N250,000 daily, was abandoned by workers.
FAAN also
incurred losses in passenger service charge and parking fees by motorists
at both the domestic and international terminals of the Lagos airport.
It charges
N4,940 as domestic landing fee for a Boeing 737 and N350 per passenger.
Overall,
corporate Nigeria may have lost about N50 billion in the strike.
A former
director of the Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mark
Udom, said the loss would be higher when economic activities in the
informal sector are factored in.
Analysts say
the public sector would have suffered 60 per cent loss and the private
sector 40 per cent.
Officials
of CBN and the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS) could not be reached
for their reactions. The strike also took a toll on their activities.
Expressing
their views on the fuel palava, members of the Lagos State House of
Assembly on Tuesday unanimously condemned the attitude of oil marketers
to the plight of the masses and urged NLC to devise ways of countering
their antics.
|
