|
Revert to old fuel prices, Reps urge
Presidency
•New rates sad, says Mantu
•Labour/stakeholders’ meeting deadlocked
By Bassey Udo,
Adetutu Folasade-Koyi,
Paul Mumeh and
Uchenna Awom (Abuja)
Issues
around fuel and its pricing mechanism concentrated minds in Abuja on Wednesday
without resolving anything, let alone the impending strike by the Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC) that could throw the country into another round of chaos.
Regardless,
the House of Representatives rose from its plenary session with a plea to the
Presidency to immediately revert to the prices that prevailed up to last month.
It
also urged Labour to suspend its mass protest scheduled for October 11.
Deputy
Senate President Ibrahim Mantu described the price hikes as sad, but he
appealed to the NLC to reconsider the strike plan.
He
spoke at the opening session of stakeholders meeting with the Senate Committee
on Employment, Labour and Productivity, convened to try to resolve issues
around petroleum products.
However,
the meeting ended in a deadlock and no new date was agreed.
Echoing
the House of Representatives, the Switzerland chapter of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), through its General Secretary Emmanuel Odigie, has urged the
government to drop the new tariffs as they will be counterproductive in the
long run.
It
decried the rates, describing them has a recurring decimal.
Odigie
said in Bern that it is disheartening that Nigerians are going through such
harrowing experiences as a result of government economic reforms.
He
urged the government not to rush things, as this may be counter-productive, and
urged Labour to shelve its strike plan in favour of further dialogue.
Leading
the debate on Wednesday, House Leader Abdul Ningi said he is aware of the
multiplier effects of the prices on Nigerians and the fact that Nigeria is the
6th largest exporter of crude oil in the world.
He
said he is also conscious of the fact that the per capita income is so low that
most citizens have been denied the economic power to purchase refined products
at international prices.
In
adopting the motion, which none of his colleagues disagreed with, the House,
presided over by Deputy Speaker Austin Opara, resolved to implore the
government to drop the price increases and immediately revert to the old ones.
It
set-up an ad-hoc committee headed, by Nze Chidi Duru, to look into the matter
and make recommendations that could help resolve the recurring fuel problem.
The committee is to report its findings to the House next week.
The
House summoned the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC), Funso Kupolokun, Managing Director of Department of
Petroleum Resources (DPR), Executive Secretary of Petroleum Products Pricing
and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and representatives of the NLC to appear before
the ad-hoc committee today at 11 a.m.
Speaking
at the stakeholders’ conference in Abuja, Mantu called on Labour to
embrace dialogue and hoped that the meeting would agree on the correct pricing
of petroleum prices.
Mantu
said: “It is sad that we are convening a meeting to discuss fuel hike.
Each time there is a hike in the pump prices of petroleum products, there is a
meeting. We thought that with deregulation, there would no longer be anything
like this. It would continue to be a recurring decimal unless we sit down and
attack the problem once and for all. God has blessed us with materials.
“If
our refineries were working, we will not need to import the shortfall. There
has never been a time we can say that we have a correct price of PMS itself. I
thought that after deregulation, the revolution would take place in the
petroleum sector. In the communication sector, there is now GSM. The question
is, what has gone wrong in the oil sector? Why are there no private refineries
if government has not been able to meet local consumption?
“I
do not think it is the interest of Labour to embark on strike. A lot of revenue
will be lost through strike. It is easy to organise a strike, but you cannot
control its effects. I will like us to, for once, as stakeholders, sit down and
come up with a permanent solution”.
The
conference ended in a deadlock, nonetheless.
For
more than three hours, the meeting, scheduled for 11 a.m., could not begin
following disagreements on the calibre of government representation.
It
was presided over by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and
Productivity, Timiebi Koripamo-Agary, and attended by Executive Secretary,
Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Oluwole Oluleye; Group
Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Funso
Kupolokun, as well as NNPC Executive Director Ibrahim Waziri and some ministry
officials.
Senate
Labour Committee Chairman Bassey Ewa-Henshaw came as an observer.
NLC
President Adams Oshiomhole, who led other members of its National Executive
Committee (NEC), made up of leaders of affiliate groups like Petroleum and
Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and National Union
of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), was not impressed by
Koripamo-Agary’s explanation. He blamed the government’s poor
representation at the meeting on Federal Executive Council (FEC).
In
his view, the government’s attitude to the meeting confirms his position
that it is not serious to address the issues at stake, insisting that since the
meeting was informed by an issue whose resolutions would require high executive
authority to implement, conferring with low government officials who lack the
muscle to enforce them would amount to a waste of time.
Koripamo-Agary
had said that the meeting was convened to dialogue and consolidate the gains
from government reforms, adding that a smaller body of social partners may be
set up to liaise regularly with the PPPRA on petroleum products prices.
The
body will recommend ways to mitigate the impact of frequent increases in the prices
of petroleum products and on industrial relations.
The
meeting was adjourned without agreement on a new date.
Oshiomhole
said in an interview that the NLC may not honour a new invitation if government
representation is not reviewed.
|
