Afenifere urges summit on fuel crisis, CD canvasses partial protest
By Clifford Ndujihe
MIXED reactions at the weekend continued to trail the decision of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Civil Society Coalition to resume the suspended strike over increases in the prices of petroleum products.
The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, and the Campaign for Democracy (CD) have joined ranks with supporters of the strike.
However, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Lagos chapter and a group, Reality 2007, have expressed their opposition to the action.
The Federal Government last week secured a court order stopping Labour from resuming the strike but the NLC President, Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, said there was no going back on the action.
In what has been described as a reconciliatory gesture, President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday ordered a reduction of pump price of Kerosene from N62 to N52 per litre.
Labour is insisting on a complete return to the old prices of petroleum products before the last increment.
Endorsing the stand of Labour, Afenifere in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, said the government had failed to utilise the legroom given by the NLC to avoid the strike.
The group canvassed a dismantling of the Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu-led Palliatives Panel for a National Summit on Energy Crisis where all stakeholders would address burning issues.
Afenifere said: "This is one strike the nation could have avoided if we had a listening and compassionate President.
"First, Labour gave a 14-day ultimatum before the four-day warning strike in October. After suspending the strike, it gave another two-week break, which it later extended by another 14 days for the Ramadan season. Yet, the Obasanjo government refused to take advantage of all of these to strike any bargain."
Evidence that the President was not in touch with reality and plight of the citizenry, according to Afenifere, was how he twice disputed the existence of abject poverty in the land in the last one week.
"The only way Nigerians can draw the attention of this President to their worsening conditions since the latest hike is to give maximum support to the Labour strike. By the time the nation grinds to a halt, the President would know that Nigeria is not Otta Farm where he can insist on the amount he wants to sell his eggs and anybody who does not want it his way can go to the highway", Afenifere added.
Urging the NLC to leave the palliatives panel because "if Labour continues to hop in and out of the Mantu committee, thinking that anything will come out of it, it must have terribly misread the character of this regime."
Essentially, Afenifere wants the National Summit on Energy Crisis to address:
- how to maintain functionary refineries since the present government has woefully failed to make them work despite siphoning about $800 million;
- how the petroleum sector would be run transparently to check the present corruption in the industry;
- whether Nigeria needs deregulation and if it does, what type should it be;
- to, as a last resort, give the regime the option of resigning if it cannot manage the oil sector.
Arguing in the same vein, the CD in a statement by Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin however suggested a new approach to the strike so as not to inflict severe hardship on the citizenry.
"Considering the fact that majority of Nigerians are in the informal sector, Labour should be creative in handling this indefinite strike so as not to wear people out. Our suggestion is that from 2.00 p.m. of each strike day, markets should be allowed to open and transporters to operate. This would guarantee the sustenance of an indefinite strike, as it is now clear that the Obasanjo administration would only talk to those who adopt extreme measures," the CD said.
The group justified the strike on the ground that the government was "treating Nigerians the cold way receivers would handle an ailing company."
Insisting that Nigerians have been undergoing untold hardships since the latest fuel price increases with reported cases of suicide on the increase, the CD said "when people are confronted with injustice, then they have two options: to fight on their feet or die on their knees. Nigerians should choose to fight on their feet."
Faulting the resumption of the strike, the Lagos PDP said dialogue was the best way out of the problem.
Alhaji Murtala Ashorobi, the state chairman of the party, in a release on behalf of stakeholders said cushioning measures introduced by the government should not be scuttled by the strike.
Since the government has given the Mantu committee the mandate to also discuss fuel pricing, the PDP urged Labour leaders to make maximum use of the opportunity.
Echoing similar views, Mr. Ebun Martins, the executive director of Reality 2007, said strikes and petroleum prices reduction would only meet the needs of the masses in the interim.
According to him, the best bet is ensuring steady supply of petroleum products through refining at home. And this, he said, could only come about if the oil sector is completely deregulated and the private sector given an opportunity to come in as witnessed in the telecommunications sector.
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