The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, poised for battle against the eight days old President Bola Tinubu government over the withdrawal of fuel subsidy has declared nationwide strike beginning from Wednesday. But much thanks to the Industrial Court that stopped the move on Monday.
The Joe Ajaero-led NLC is angling that the removal was sudden and will bring devastating hardship on Nigerians. But in a swift reaction many Nigerians have described the Ajaero declaration as political.
Throwing the first salvo, former president of NUPENG, Chief Frank Ovie Kokori, one of Nigeria’s greatest patriots whose sweat watered the democracy we are enjoying in Nigeria today, warned: “We must cooperate with Tinubu to deal with Shylock marketers on subsidy removal.
Chief Kokori must have spoken the minds of millions of Nigerians as we need to scrutinize the activities of the NNPC rather than play politics with the new administration. While Nigerians are applauding the president for putting an end to this fraudulent subsidy policy, we should demand from the NNPC to itemize how it came about the current price even when the price of crude oil is falling at the international market.
Nigerians need to understand why NNPC and the marketers didn’t prepare for this subsidy removal regime long ago when it was glaring that this new administration will do away with it upon assumption of office.
Nigerians should also know why NNPC still wants to dominate the market (monopoly) as an umpire in a deregulated market.
It must be clearly understood that Nigerians have been scammed in the past and we are no more ready to pay for the inefficiency of NNPC under whatever guise. Not for an outfit noted for its notoriety and lawlessness
Majority of the presidential candidates in the last election in their campaigns did not mince words that it was high time fuel subsidy was removed in Nigeria, From Peter Obi of the LP to Abubakar Atiku of the PDP and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the APC, the message was clear. Fuel subsidy is a fraud.
From the benefit of hindsight, let me inform Nigerians that if we failed to kill fuel subsidy, it will forever remain a monster that will destroy the country. As a player and stakeholder in the sector, I find it difficult to reconcile why the NNPC monopoly of the oil sector has continued to put Nigeria economy in distress over the years. Its claim that Nigerians consume 60 million litres of fuel daily can’t be substantiated with any data as Nigerians don’t fuel their cars every day.
Those who take our products across the borders are mostly aided by customs and this nefarious activity has been on for ages to sabotage the economy of this country. Those who run NNPC with impunity, without recourse to the extant law of the land, by passing marketers to create illegal ‘ Authority to Load’ system in order to continue to empower certain section of the society know the implication of their actions.
I think any right thinking person especially the Nigerian Labour Congress, led by Ajaero should support this policy of Tinubu government on subsidy removal.
Removing subsidy is a way of channeling wasted resources over the years into social infrastructure to serve as springboard for economic growth and prosperity for Nigerians.
In the past, we have been funding the opulence lifestyles of the NNPC staffers and their inefficiency.
But the new sheriff in town knows that it is imperative to block this hydra headed petrol subsidy scam as the NNPC’s abracadabra to conjure new price template in a deregulated economy where market forces should dictate the prices show intentions of NNPC to blackmail the new government.
In a deregulated economy, fixing of prices by any corporation becomes an aberration. What NNPC is still projecting as the game master of petroleum business has since collapsed with the subsidy removal policy
It’s a simple principle in life that you can’t appropriate and reprobate. NNPC, in its desperation to manipulate the conscience of Nigerians and blackmail this government to pit it against the citizens went overboard by fixing the price of petrol, a policy that should naturally take off in July this year since 2023 budget covers subsidy till June .
NNPC is engaging in this macabre dance because there is no atom of transparency in its activities. In the last six months to one year, certain marketers made huge payments running into billions for products, and in its show of shame and lack of transparency and apparent failure to discharge its obligations, the NNPC failed to supply a litre of petrol to these marketers, thereby putting some Nigerians into financial quagmire.
Ajaero and his ilk should hold on to the fact that Nigerians can no longer fund the inefficiency of NNPC that is parading itself as the oil empire of Nigeria. This government needs to do surgical operations about the corporations from the top to bottom.
Why should a company that claims to parade experts in the management of oil in Nigeria fail to distinguish between what is called deregulated and regulated fuel policy?
While NNPC is claiming ignorance of the difference between the two, it should be reminded that in a deregulated regime, price of such commonly would be determined by market forces (forces of demand and supply) and not by any organization.
And the intention of NNPC to play the role of monopoly is suspicious and completely antithetical to the policy as espoused by the current administration.
Suffice to say it here that the philosophy behind this current policy of removal is to attract investment to oil sectors and put an end to wastage as we have since found out that we have been subsidizing the economies of neighboring countries over the years and also the inefficiency of NNPC.
NNPC should therefore come to the reality that as it stands today, its organization is a competitor like any other company in the sector. It’s therefore disingenuous for the company to be setting price template for other marketers.
If there is any agitation against the removal of petrol subsidy today by Labour unions, it must be as a result of the approach adopted by NNPC which in my view was designed to embarrass the new administration and probably trigger up a crisis between organized labour and this new administration.
It’s sad that NNPC that is part of the assets of this country is being run like a lawless outfit in a civilized society. This should worry the NLC except their mission is to protect the cartel that has continued to milk Nigeria dry.
But we have a consolation in the emergence of Tinubu who warned during his campaign that even if we protest or not fuel subsidy would be removed. We have the assurance that Tinubu will not condone lawlessness in whatever guise in his administration.
.Otunba Sola Olatunji, Chairman of Ikale Heritage Association, writes from Lagos
