* NLC vows to go ahead, oil prices hit $53
* Protesters shut Warri ahead Monday strike
ABUJA—THE Senate, yesterday, begged President Olusegun Obasanjo to reverse the latest hike in fuel prices and said increases in pump prices were no solution to the crisis in the petroleum sector.
Also yesterday, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) urged government and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to avert the looming industrial action in the interest of the economy.
However, labour vowed to go ahead with its action while world oil prices bolted to new record zeniths reaching 53 dollars in New York on markets nervous about tight global supplies with winter approaching in the northern hemisphere. The planned strike in Nigeria, according to experts, was adding further support to prices.
Yesterday’s resolution of the Senate came as it adopted the report of its committee on labour which contains, among others, a proposal for a modulation scheme under which government is expected to subsidise domestic petroleum products each time the prices of crude rise above a ceiling.
The Senators spoke of the devastating effect on the economy and sufferings among the citizenry arising from the recent price increases in fuel prices. But Deputy Senate President, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu, presiding, rebuked Senator Musiliu Obanikoro for saying that Nigerians were possibly dying of hunger.
“I don’t know anywhere in Nigeria where people are dying of hunger. We have the percentage of people who are dying of HIV/AIDS but we don’t know of Nigerians dying of hunger,” Alhaji Mantu said.
Other Senators who spoke at yesterday’s session with the lone exception of Senator Bob Ekarika (PDP, Akwa Ibom) urged the Federal Government to reverse the increase. According to them, no country in the world lays its economy bare to the fluctuations of the international market system. “There is no where in the world that there is a perfect market. In Europe, Japan and America, products are subsidized,” Senator Omar Hambagda (ANPP, Borno) said as he dismissed suggestions of a perfect market. Senator Rufai Hanga (ANPP, Kano) in his submission deposed that governance was about people and not just about making profit or making money.
In the submission of the Senate Committee on Employment Labour and Productivity presented by the Committee chairman, Senator Bassey Ewa Henshaw, the Committee submitted that the issue of subsidy must not be ruled out of consideration. “The issue of removal of subsidy must be considered within the context of the needs and circumstances of the Nigerian people. In the US, Europe and China (indeed most parts of the world), subsidies are provided in sectors where their respective governments feel that their people are vulnerable. Nigeria cannot be an exception. Although we are the 7th largest producer of crude in the world, this is the area where our people are most vulnerable in the face of large scale unemployment and poverty,” he said.
Following the debate, the Senate resolved as follows:
* A special appeal be immediately forwarded to the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to urgently open discussions with all stakeholders with a view to averting the planned nationwide strike and finding a permanent solution to the recurring problem of increases in the pump prices of petroleum products and the attendant threats of strike.
* A special appeal be also immediately forwarded to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its civil society partners to postpone their threatened strike to allow a conducive atmosphere for discussions that will lead to a solution of the problem.
* Recommendations be made to the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that as a possible long term solution to the problem:
* A price modulation band with a floor tied to the crude price adopted for budget purposes presently $25.00 a barrel and ceiling price of 150% of the floor price presently equivalent to $37.50 be adopted and established as the guaranteed price for purchase of crude meant for processing in Nigeria for domestic consumption.
* Pump prices be rolled back to their previous levels before the latest increases in order to ameloriate the hardship on ordinary Nigerians.
* Discussions be opened with state governors with a view to reaching agreement that part of the excess crude income to be distributed be used to stabilise pump prices at their previous levels of between N42.00 and N45.00 until a lasting solution is found.
* The President should take urgent steps to provide necessary incentives that will encourage investors who have been granted refinery licenses to establish their refineries within the shortest possible time in order to substantially increase refining capacity within the country.
MAN asks FG, NLC to avert strike
Four days to the October 11 nationwide strike, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) yesterday urged the Federal Government and the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to avert the industrial action in the interest of the economy. The association also wrote to President Obasanjo to urgently arrange a stakeholders’ meeting which should include NNPC, major oil marketers, manufacturers and employers associations, Labour etc to discuss the matter with a view to finding a lasting solution.
MAN President, Engr. Charles Ugwuh, in a statement said similar strike actions last year caused incalculable damage to the economy, adding that if the lingering nationwide strike was not nipped in the bud, it might frustrate and destroy the progress made so far. Manufacturers, he said, therefore, urged Labour to suspend the impending strike and embrace dialogue to resolve the dispute through the stakeholders meeting suggested by MAN. MAN, Ugwuh noted, was hopeful of positive response from the Presidency in respect of the stakeholders meeting.
“The National Council of MAN wishes to reaffirm its faith in the good intentions of President Olusegun Obasanjo for the nation and assures government of its preparedness to continue to contribute to the economic well being and peace of our country,” he said.
NLC vows to go ahead
Also speaking, NLC General Secretary, Mr. Owei Lakemfa, said labour would go ahead with the planned strike. “We are getting set for the strike. It is definite that it will be launched on Monday since the government has shown no intention of negotiating with us,” Lakemfa said.
“The government is not serious and that is why it sent a low-level delegation to the talks in Abuja yesterday (Wednesday),” he said
Also, the Central Working Committee (CWC) of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) rising from a meeting in Ibadan asked government to “give a firm commitment on the deregulation and engage real stakeholders in order to permanently solve the imbroglio the government has put the nation.” Ordinary Nigerians, it said, “cannot continue to bear the brunt of government’s planlessness in harnessing the God’s given resources of the country abundant oil wealth."
Protesters shut down Warri
Effurun and Warri in Delta State were practically shut down for several hours, yesterday, as a coalition of civil society groups, led by the chairman and national co-ordinator of The Human Rights Defenders Organisation of Nigeria, Mr. C.D.S.
Omon-Irabor, staged a peaceful protest against government over the recent hike in petroleum products pump prices.
The protesters who defied the morning rain marched from Effurun to Warri and were joined by some market women, motor cycle riders and members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers.
Warri main market was closed for the duration of the protest while most banks at Effurun and Warri did not open for business until the protesters who had earlier given the Federal Government a seven-day ultimatum to reverse the new increases in fuel prices concluded the protest. Motorists carried green leaves on their vehicles as a sign of solidarity. However, business activities commenced in both Warri and Effurun after the protest.
Oil price hit $53 per barrel
Meanwhile, World oil prices bolted to new record summits yesterday, reaching 53 dollars in New York on markets nervous about tight global supplies with winter approaching in the northern hemisphere. Looming strike action in major oil producer, Nigeria, was adding further support to prices, analysts said.
The price of reference light sweet crude for November delivery spiked at 53 dollars a barrel in opening deals on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest level in the contract’s 21-year history.
US crude futures later eased to 52.30 dollars, a gain of 28 cents from the day’s previous closing price.
In London Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in November surged above 49 dollars a barrel for the first time, hitting 49.20 a barrel in afternoon trading. It stood at 48.62 dollars in late deals, a gain of 63 cents.
