Panel to cushion effects of fuel price increase deceitful, says Oshiomhole
From Sunny Ogefere, Asaba; Ifedayo Sayo, Ado Ekiti; Wole Shadare and Yemi Adepetun (Lagos)
NIGERIA Labour Congress (NLC) President, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole has described as "tricky and deceitful", the committee set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo to work out palliatives to cushion the effects of the recent increase in fuel prices.
Oshiomhole spoke with journalists in Ibusa, Delta State, where he paid a condolence visit to the Managing Director of Guardian Newspapers Limited, Mr. Emeka Izeze whose mother was buried at the weekend.
Oshiomhole said that he was aware that President Olusegun Obasanjo had already directed the Finance Ministry to work out the palliatives, which would form part of the 2005 Appropriation Bill to be presented to the National Assembly.
"To give the committee the same job, what he (President) has asked the Ministry of Finance to do is tricky and deceitful and it will not be worth my while," he stated.
Oshiomhole explained that he accepted to serve on the palliative measure committee headed by Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, to avoid being branded a war-monger.
He added that he accepted membership of the committee to ensure that concrete issues other than palliative measures such as fuel pricing and the state of the nation's refineries were discussed by the committee.
He stated that his continued stay on the committee was predicated on the condition that these concrete issues were addressed by the committee.
The labour chief warned that if discussions were limited to only palliative measures, he would stay away from the committee.
Said he: "You know our people. If I refuse to serve on the committee, they will call me a war-monger who never sees anything good in government actions".
Speaking on the suspended nation-wide strike action, Oshiomhole restated Labour's determination to resume the strike if nothing positive was done by the government within the two weeks grace period given.
Also, a former Ekiti State Finance Commissioner, Mr. Bayo Aina, has said that rather than palliatives to cushion the effect of the recent fuel price increase, Nigerians need products to become cheaper.
He explained that as a producer of crude oil, the nation had no reason to rely on imported fuel for its domestic needs, adding that the Obasanjo regime was doing a lot of damage to the country if it could not put the refineries back into operation.
"After several billions of naira spent on the refineries without any solution, the government has no right to increase the prices of fuel, as its action shows that it has transferred the punishment of its failure to rehabilitate the refineries to the people," he said.
The former commissioner said it was disappointing that Nigerians were now paying for the inability of the government to do the right thing, which was the rehabilitation of the refineries.
But as the nation got a reprieve from the four day strike called by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC last week to protest the increase in the prices of petroleum product, Lagos State Governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appealed to the Federal Government to seriously look back at what had gone wrong with a view to ameliorating the sufferings of the masses.
The governor told journalists at the weekend at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos that although deregulation of the downstream oil sector was desirable, there were certain things needed to be put in place to stem the sufferings of the people.
He stated that once those things were put in place, they would cushion the effects of the harsh economic realities.
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