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Nigeria held hostage by fuel
marketers -oshiomhole
•Nlc meets on strike option
FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE (Lagos)
DAVID AGBA, Abuja and MUHAMMAD KABIR,Kano
NIGERIA
Labour Congress (NLC) president Adams Oshiomhole has alleged that part of the
reason for the frequent fuel price increases by the Federal Government is
because President Olusegun Obasanjo has been held hostage by multinational oil
companies and their agents. Even as the congress meets tomorrow to decide on the
second phase of strike.
Oshimohole, who spoke with Daily
Champion in Abuja, said the alleged hostage compelled the President to
insist on foisting on Nigerians obnoxious reform policies to satisfy the foreign
powers.
The fuel price hike issue, over which the
NLC penultimate Thursday suspended a four-day warning strike, is expected to
again take centre-stage tomorrow when the Congress’ highest decision-making
organ, the National Executive Council (NEC) meets in Abuja tomorrow.
The NEC comprises of chairman and
secretaries of Congress’ 36 state councils and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
as well as the presidents, general secretaries and treasures of the 29 affiliate
unions.
The organ may fix a date for an indefinite
nationwide strike over the fuel price matter.
Oshiomehole, while urging Nigerians not to
give up the fight against government’s perceived anti-people policies, said
‘President Obasanjo needed to be helped to navigate his way out of the
blockage."
NLC president also berated the array of
the president’s advisers and assistants for their alleged shallow way of
thinking and the consequent below average assessment of the nation’s economic
situation.
Assessing the issues involved in the
import-driven oil and gas deregulation and the attendant fuel price hike, Mr
Oshiomhole argued that "President Obasanjo is a victim of the characters that
mill around him. I think that we need somebody who is politically strong enough
to reach the President and confront him with hard facts, including facts he may
not want to hear, because the President is fast losing credibility in the eyes
of the people."
"The powerful multinational and foreign
companies and their agents have blocked the President, so he needs somebody to
unblock him and it must be somebody he trusts who can say to him ‘sir, you know
we are together in the same boat. I cannot give you a suggestion that will wreck
the ship of the state," Oshiomhole added.
The NLC boss faulted the argument of
government that the fight by labour against fuel hike was for the urban rich,
which parade the town with different cars, and not for the rural poor, saying
that labour had been vindicated by the high price of kerosene, which is mainly
consumed by the rural people. A litre of kerosene presently goes for as high as
N60.00 in same parts of the country.
Mr Oshiomhole insisted that the current
deregulation policy would never work in the oil and gas sector as it did in
telecommunications because the oil and gas players would not come out with the
real facts to help in formulating the policy in a good enough way as to bring
down the prices of fuel.
He expressed labour’s confidence in the
Deputy Senate Leader Ibrahim Mantu’s leadership of the fuel price palliantive
committee, saying it is capable of making President Obasanjo appreciate the need
to go beyond cushioning measures and consider issues leading to the frequent
price hikes.
Mr Oshiomhole commended the media for
siding with the people during the four-day warning strike, saying the nation is
blessed with a press that is unanimous that Nigeria’s democracy must be
defended.
Meanwhile, oil pipeline vandalisation has
roared its ugly head in Kano and Niger states with stakeholders warning that the
development would further worsen the poor state of petroleum products supply in
the northern part of the country.
Already, Bebeji council area of Kano and
Suleja local government in Niger State have both fallen victim of the menace.
Alhaji Yahaya Maikifi, chairman of
Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) told Daily Champion
in Kano that the development was becoming worrisome to petroleum products
marketers and consumers, especially members of the National Association of Road
Transport Owners (NARTO) and Petroleum Tankers Drivers (PTD).
He noted that the group had convened a
meeting to see how the situation could be redeemed but regretted that the
phenomena had persisted.
He said the group had formed a committee
made up of IPMAN, PTB and NARTO to commence an enlightenment campaign on the
dangers of pipeline vandalisation.
Alhaji Maikifi noted that the behaviours
which is a new phenomenon in the north, must be stopped if the region hoped to
come out of the difficulties of shortage of fuel supply.
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