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Kupolokun’s fuel price
THE
statement credited to the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Funso Kupolokun, that the selling price of
petrol per litre should be N70, is to say the least, unfortunate and insensitive
to the mood of the nation.
Coming at a time when the wounds inflicted
on individual Nigerians and on the economy by last week’s suspended strike is
yet to heal, the pronouncement can only be viewed as an attempt to incite
marketers into disobeying the order of an Abuja High Court to revert the pump
price of petrol to N41.50k per litre.
The strike called by the Nigerian Labour
Congress (NLC) was suspended on the strength of strong assurances by agents of
the Federal Government, including Mr. Kupolokun, that the marketers would obey
the order of the court.
But very unfortunately, rather than make
efforts to redeem this pledge, and ensure compliance with the ruling of the
court, the NNPC boss chose to further fuel the crisis and inflame passion
through his unguarded statement.
The least we had expected of a public
officer of his standing, given the prevailing situation in the country, is to be
concerned with the fact that most filling stations are still selling fuel at
prices that are much higher than the N41.50 ordered by the court and the likely
consequences of such a state of affairs should the NLC resume its strike on that
score. He should have been sufficiently concerned with steps to redress the
artificial scarcity being created to induce black marketeering, long queues at
petrol stations and the associated hardship they impose on the citizens. We had
expected him to be concerned with how to strike common grounds so as to find a
permanent solution to the recurring fuel crisis.
The message sent clearly by Kupolokun is
that there will be no end to the fuel price crisis and that obeying the
agreement that led to the suspension of the strike is no solution to the
problem. This could well be. But it smacks of insensitivity to the plight of the
suffering masses to be talking of fuel selling for N70 per litre when at a
lesser price, labour had to go on strike to effect reduction.
By virtue of his position as a public
servant, he should be busy working out strategies that would lead to a
resolution of the crisis and eschew actions and utterances that would
exercerbate it. He should be seen making conciliatory suggestions as to how the
present impasse can be resolved. But he ignored all these and chose to add salt
to injury at a most ‘inauspicious time. This speaks a lot of the quality of
people that preside over our nation’s affairs.
Kupolokun’s argument on the return of
scarcity and the inability of the NNPC to cope if the situation is allowed to be
the way the court has ordered is defeatist. It is his business to find a way out
that would favour the masses of this country who own the oil wealth in the first
instance.
Even if Mr. Kupolokun’s argument could be
tolerated, the alarm was unnecessary especially coming at a time when dialogue
between government, the marketers and labour should be advancing towards
resolution of the logjam and moreso, as they had given every assurance that they
would enforce the court’s order.
The argument of Kupolokun also gives the
impression that Nigerians as citizens of a major oil producing country cannot
enjoy special benefits from their natural endowment. This cannot be reasonably
sustained. Ironically, this has been the folly of the argument that the pump
price of fuel must be determined by the uncertainties of the international oil
market. It should not be so. Rather, serious efforts must be put to the repair
of existing refineries or the construction of entirely new ones to protect our
toiling citizens. We cannot be talking about paying international prices if our
refineries are producing optimally. But then, a substantial quantity of fuel
consumed domestically is still refined at home. Why do we have to sell both the
imported ones and the locally produced variant based on the vagueries of the
international oil market? This poser is at the centre of the contradiction in
Kupolokun’s insensitive statement.
The suggestion, is not only inauspicious
but could further inflame passion especially as efforts are being made to
resolve the dispute between labour and other stakeholders on the vexatious
matter.
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