“The predatory argument that our refineries are too old for maintenance, therefore, falls flat in the face”
Importation of petroleum products should be stopped forthwith by the Federal Government because it is “akin to handing over our national sovereignty to other climes,” the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said.
The congress argued that it was foolhardy for the government to think it could regulate the price of a product it does not produce.
It berated the government for continuing to pay subsidies on petroleum products, thereby abandoning the nation’s refineries after spending $9.5 billion on their Turnaround Maintenance and Greenfield refineries between 2012 and now.
The NLC stated these in a letter it addressed to the governors as key members of the Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo-led National Economic Council. The council had recommended that the pump price of fuel be increased from N162.50 to N302 per litre.
The letter is jointly signed by NLC President Ayuba Wabba and General-Secretary Emmanuel Ugboaja.
In the letter, the congress insisted that its Thursday planned protests would go ahead because an increase in petroleum products price, whether now or in the future, would inflict more hardship on Nigerians.
It warned that workers would have no other choice than to down tools any time the government decided to impose another round of petrol price hike.
The congress accused government of failing to honour an agreement with the organised labour on the freezing of further increases in the pump prices.
It also expressed dismay that government failed to reconvene a committee meeting on petrol and electricity tariffs for over two years despite entreaties from organised labour.
Labour argued that the “perennial increase of the pump price of petrol” amounted to “a transfer” of its failure and inability to effectively govern the country.
The NLC said it was befuddling that India and Kuwait that host some of the world’s oldest refineries had expanded the production capacities of their facilities while Nigeria remains unable to maintain its own that are not as old.
It said: “Digboi Refinery in Upper Assam India is reputed to be the oldest operating refinery in the world. The Digboi Refinery was commissioned on 11th December 1901 with an installed capacity of 0.5 million bpd but has over the years been up-scaled to 0.65 million bpd.
“The Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery in Kuwait which was built in 1949 with an initial capacity of 25,000 bpd has been scaled up to currently process 466,000 bpd.
“The connecting dot between the two refineries is that both are in developing countries with similar colonial antecedents like Nigeria.
“The predatory argument that our refineries are too old for maintenance, therefore, falls flat in the face.”
Part of the letter reads: “It is the well-considered view of Nigerian workers as conveyed through the leadership of organised labour that the proposed hike if it goes through, would induce and impose an unprecedented degree of hardship on Nigerian workers, their families and the generality of the populace.
“Nigerian workers understand that government pays out significant amount of money as so-called petrol subsidy. Nigerian workers also appreciate the fact that the monies spent on the so-called petrol subsidy would be totally unnecessary if the government is alive to its responsibilities of proper management of critical national assets, especially our local refineries.
“It is the mismanagement of our four public oil refineries over the years by successive governments that have opened the floodgates of mass importation of refined petroleum products and consequently unfurled incessant increases in the prices of refined petroleum products.
“The fact is very clear – there is no way a country can control the price of what it does not produce. For a critical national security product like petrol and other refined petroleum derivatives, the situation is akin to handing over our national sovereignty to other climes. There is no better description of neo-colonialism and toxic neo-liberalism than this.”
The NLC noted that the incessant hike in the pump price of petrol is self-inflicted and therefore totally unacceptable.
It blamed the trend on the failure of the government to maintain the public refineries and build new ones, institutionalise importation price model, incongruities in the petroleum sector/broader governance challenges and non-implementation of agreements.
The congress added: “Over the years, the government has invested billions of taxpayers money into overhauling our national refineries with no commensurate results. Between 2012 and now, about $9.5 billion has been spent on Turn Around Maintenance (TAM), Greenfield Refinery Projects and even public investments in private refineries, yet Nigeria still imports almost 100 per cent of its refined petroleum product needs.”
As a way forward, the NLC advised that the “Federal Government should re-engage Organided Labour in discussions in order to find acceptable solutions to the current quagmire in the downstream petroleum sub-sector.”
It urged the government to show “commitment to overhauling our local refineries as a lasting panacea to mass importation of refined petroleum products.”
The congress also suggested that “governments at all levels should take immediate steps to improve governance and public accountability in order to regain the confidence of Nigerians that the cardinal constitutional mandate of guaranteeing the welfare and security of Nigerians has not been traded off.”
It explained that the protests on Thursday are “only geared at alerting the government to the sufferings that Nigerians are going through and the additional insufferable trauma that Nigerians would be subjected to if the government goes ahead with the hike in the price of refined petroleum products.”
But it warned, “that workers would have no other choice than to down tools once the government goes ahead to force another round of petrol price increment.”
SOURCE: thenationonlineng.net