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By Bimbola Oyesola
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday tasked the Federal Government to treat the current scarcity of petrol and aviation fuel as a national emergency, saying that enough is enough. NLC President, Ayuba Wabba said at the root of the current pain being faced by millions of Nigerians all over the country is the monstrously defective policy of nearly 100 per cent importation of refined petroleum products.
Wabba said there was an extent to which the people could endure the current hardship occasioned by the scarcity of refined petroleum products.
“The Nigeria Labour Congress and Nigerian workers are in solidarity with the Nigerian people all over the country who have been made to bear the brunt of a crisis that is not their making, rather consequent on poor policy choices of successive governments and which has been compounded by inefficient and incompetent management of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector,” he said.
According to Wabba, Nigeria is about the only OPEC country trapped in the quagmire of complete dependence on foreign refineries for products it has capacity to produce locally, noting that this is a most unfortunate commentary on the nation’s sovereignty.
“The persisting scarcity of refined petroleum products has unleashed a tsunami of very dire economic realities including exorbitant airfare, cancellation of scheduled flights, destruction of thousands of automobile engines by adulterated fuel and wastage of productive hours.
“Currently, a litre of aviation fuel sells for as high as N580 while a litre of diesel goes as high as N625. In many parts of the country, a litre of PMS goes as high as N220. The socio-economic strain of both the scarcity and the high cost of petroleum products on ordinary Nigerians and manufacturing firms is best imagined. In many parts of Nigeria, manufacturing has ground to a halt.
The current haemorrhage induced by the prevailing scarcity of petroleum products has very grave concomitant effects on the already parlous unemployment and security situation in our country,” he said.
On the way out, he said the Federal Government must seriously look the way of local refining of petroleum in Nigeria.
“We must now ditch the over-laboured gospel of deregulation which has been proved to be mere moniker for incessant increase in the price of petrol. The fact that NNPC cannot keep to its promise of 24-hour supply of petrol in advertised gas stations shows that the petrol importation policy has failed completely,” he said.
