...Mantu Heads Panel on Palliatives
Strike to continue, says Oshiomhole
From Josephine Lohor, Chuks Okocha, Kola Ologbondiyan, Ahamefula Ogbu, Andy Ekugo and Juliana Taiwo in Abuja
Few hours after the nationwide strike on the hike of prices of petroleum products began yesterday, President Olusegun Obasanjo inaugurated a 33-man committee on the cushioning of the effects of price increases with the Deputy Senate President, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu, as chairman and President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, as a member.
The president had in his independence message promised to set up such committee whose major function, he stated yesterday, "is to collage, harmonise and co-ordinate measures that will be agreed to bring about short-term relief and medium-term positive impact on the effect of high oil prices."
Obasanjo reiterated that "this administration has never arrogated to itself all knowledge or that it was all knowing; we never attempted to play God and we believe that no individual or groups of individuals, whether elected, selected or self-proclaimed should play God in our society either by action or by pronouncement." He said that "but some people, for their own selfish interest and self-centeredness, are trying to portray this administration in bad light."
Obasanjo added that "most leaders in the world who had been reformers have been often misunderstood, not by strangers but mostly by their own people when they were executing needed and desirable reforms. Most leaders that experienced such misunderstanding have in the end been lucky to be vindicated. Some have not been so lucky. For us, it will not be that we failed to do what we should have done at the right time; in the short and medium terms in the interest of Nigeria."
According to him, "This government has taken tough decisions on privatisation and deregulation of the downstrean sector of the petroleum industry and we do know that these decisions will cause some temporary hardships on the generality of our people. Populist options may be sweet but they do not endure and may not build for tomorrow."
"Cosmetic programmes and diversionary strategies may satisfy short-term or immediate constituencies and yearnings, but the society at large would pay the cost at the end. That has been our experience in the past. Postponing the evil day is escapist and unfair to the dreams, hopes, aspirations and sacrifices of a people that want to lay viable foundations for growth, development and overall improvement in the living conditions," he added.
Responding, Mantu said that the committee has "the opportunity ... not just for addressing the present situation but for seeking a lasting solution to the problem of unending price ajustments and creating the enabling conditions for true deregulation.
"When the price of petrol went up to N40.00 per litre everybody thought that that was going to be the final adjustment. But now we know better. We all thought that like the GSM, we were at the point where deregulation was complete and market forces were going to interplay to start bringing prices down. That we have not succeeded in the oil sector as much as in the telecommunications sector means that there are some things that we are still not doing right in the oil sector.
"There are a number of factors that remain outside our control. That is the international price of crude, the naira value and our lack of adequate refining capacity in the country which makes us depend on importation."
Members of the committee include the Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Honourable Austin Opara; Governor Ahmed Makarfi of Kaduna State; Ministers of Finance, Women Affairs, Labour and Productivity, Inter-governmental Affairs, Special Duties and Youth Development, and Information and National Orientation.
The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Engr. Funsho Kupolokun; four other members representing Labour, three from the Civil Society; representatives of the National Council of Women Societies, Youth Council of Nigeria, Guild of Editors, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and Senior Civil Servants Association are also members of the committee.
The committee immediately went into a close door meeting before adjourning till Thursday.
Oshiomhole said late yesterday that the meeting of the committee was adjourned till Thursday because most members pleaded for time to get some information.
"What this means is that the strike will go on because they did not address any of the issues we are agitating for. We believe that Senator Mantu, by his pronouncement on this issue, is in the position to provide the desired leadership to deal with the issue. But we haven't yet addressed the issue because as we have also argued this matter requires political solution. But we haven't yet resolved the issue of price reversal.
"The strike continues tomorrow (today) because before you begin to thinker with the strike you have to have some irreversible progress which we are yet to get. We need to see proof that the grievances of the people are under consideration and as you known our strategy is that this first phase will last till Thursday but if there are developments to necessitate the consideration of that then the competent organisation of our respective organs will look into it," the NLC president stated.
He said what those present at the meeting tried to do was to understand the business of the committee. "We are convinced that we cannot simply restrict ourselves to addressing so called palliatives or cushioning effect because that means we are dealing with only the consequences while Nigerians want to deal with the root cause.
"Our position is that the issues involved are in two parts. First and the most fundamental and the immediate are the present fuel hike. The second and the long-term solution is to ensure that the country does not continue to periodically adjust the price endlessly.
"The other element is that even the previous price increases have brought untold hardship on Nigerians, what measures are there to deal with them? We made a point that if you do not manage it carefully then we cannot come out of this vicious circle.
"If for instance we are going to address the cushion effect of this present price hike and then in another two months, according to the GMD of NNPC, that the effect of N52 per litre is as a result of $38 per barrel, and that the effect of $54 per barrel will be felt by November, that means we will continue in this vicious circle. So we are expecting further price increases.
"But we want to deal with the issue not just the consequences but the cause as well. And that is to say the present price level, which has to be reversed and the future price increase must not take place. That means we need a holistic appraisal of petroleum products prices and distribution so that the country will end this vicious circle", he said.
Oshiomhole insisted that the prices must be reversed. "We must return to status quo ante and then sit down and discuss in a cordial atmosphere. If those prices are reversed then you will be able to deal with the reaction, which was the strike. What goes up has to come down and it is this assumption that Nigeria is peculiar that makes us behave as if we are in the jungle. Nigeria is a civilised country and if it is not, we must work to make it civilised."
On whether Obasanjo was serious about the interest of the masses, Oshiomhole said he wants to believe setting up a committee with the calibre of Nigerians in there means the president is willing to address the issue.
He said if there were doubts that the NLC was still capable of engaging government in another round of strike, it has been laid to rest.
"For the President to set up a committee today after 14 days and after the strike has begun he must have convinced himself that there was need to review previous assumptions and the hardship which the accumulated price increases of the past few years have visited on the people.
"I appeal to Nigerians to keep faith. I know they are asking when will all these end? It's only God who can see tomorrow but let us never fail to try. Because what frightens me as an individual at the Governors meeting is that Mr. Kupolukun has said the present price regime is based on $38 per barrel and that the $52 will begin in November. So this must stop.
Oshiomhole expressed disappointment with the Special Adviser to the President on Media Matters, Mrs. Oluremi Oyo, for preventing the NLC from addressing, after the meeting of the committee, any other media except the NTA.
"Why will they drive away the private media and want us to talk to the government media alone so that they will go and twist everything? This is incredible! That shows that this government has a lot to hide but God was with us because we refused to talk to them," he said.
"I ask Nigerians to watch NTA with doubts because they have confused their role as the public pelations arm of the Presidency and it's a shame. The leadership should note that after 2007, history will judge," he added.
Meanwhile, the Senate has expressed optimism that the Mantu committee will find a solution to the crisis.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Senator Tawar Wada, who held an interactive session with newsmen stated that "the Senate is still very resolute about all its resolution. It's not the situation of who takes the blame between the Federal Government and Labour." He said the Senate is interested in ensuring that the impasse is resolved in the interest of all Nigerians.
Expressing the "concern and regrets" of the Senate over the strike, Wada said the fact that Obasanjo decided to personally spearhead the dialogue between the Federal Government and Labour is a demonstration that he has taken last Thursday's resolution of the Senate seriously.
The Senate had in its last week resolution appealed to the president to open dialogue with labour and their civil society partners to find a permanent solution to the problem.
"President Obasanjo has taken the problem as serious. We also appeal to stakeholders to show concern and be liberal toward the consensus that would be arrived. If the strike enters its second or third day, the toll on the development of our nation would only be better imagined than quantified.
"Also, those to reverse the price should do that because the Senate is still very resolute about all its resolutions. But if he (Obasanjo) can sell those palliatives at today's meeting with stakeholders, we don't have to revert to the old prices.
"What is important is a solution that would not make masses suffer and would make either the Labour or Federal Government to lose face," Wada added.
However, the Senate Commit-tee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Senator Emma Agboti, has charged Nigerians to support the deregulation measures in the downstream sector but make a legitimate demand for palliatives and benefits that should accrue from the process.
Agboti, in an 11-page statement entitled "Petroleum Product Pump Price Increase: The True Position" circulated to newsmen yesterday stated that "deregulation of the petroleum industry is not evil as it is being painted.
"All previous administrations in this country have at one time or the other tried to deregulate the industry and this has always necessitated adjustment of pump prices of products. It follows that what the current administration did on September 23, 2003 was not new in this country."
Agboti noted that "the basic difference between previous regimes and the present one is that while the others lacked the political will to go full blown, the same cannot be said of the present one. It behoves all Nigerians to see reason and exercise patience while giving the government maximum support".
Agboti also stated that "with the inflow of investment in the deregulated petroleum industry, legitimate business competition would set in and this would in turn lead to a massive fall in the general price levels."
But, House of Represen-tatives Ad-hoc Committee Chairman on Appropriate Pricing of Petroleum Products, Hon Nze Chidi Duru, expressed displeasure that despite the intervention of both chambers of the National Assembly the presidency failed to order a price reversal.
He said the views of both chambers ought to have been considered weighty as law and as such not disregarded by the executive.
"We feel it is not in tune with the tenets of democracy and we feel very strongly that the President ought to have respected the decision of the National Assembly which is almost equal to be a law because that is the stand of the National Assembly. So not obeying that does not reflect an understanding of what the views of government should be," Duru said.
Meanwhile, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has described Mantu's Committee as mere palliative, stating that the only solution was to get the refineries functioning properly.
CNPP also blamed Abuja residents for disobeying the stay at home directive by the Nigeria Labour Congress and Civil Society Groups. Speaking with THISDAY, General Secretary of CNPP, Maxi Okwu said, "this committee is not only belated, it is merely palliative, it does not tackle the disease which we are trying to cure. This committee is only trying to romance the disease, so it is deceptive.
"As far as were are concerned, the only solution to the fuel increase is for government to revert to the only price and immediately set machineries in motion for all those granted license for the refining of petroleum products to commence action. This is the only solution."
"Our position is repair the refineries, let those with licenses for the refining of crude oil start work and prices will fall like in the telecommunication sector. Anything outside this is nothing but a wild goose chase which will lead us nowhere," Okwu stated.
CNPP scribe also chided Abuja residents for ignoring the stay at home order explaining that, "what we are doing is nothing personal. All we want to do is for the people to chose between freedom and slavery."
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