Follow Us on Google
By Job Osazuwa
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called on Nigerians to hold the Federal Government accountable for ongoing fuel scarcity rather than blame labour.
In recent months, Nigerians have witnessed a return of fuel queues at most filling stations occasioned by epileptic fuel supply which started in 2021 after the Federal Government announced plans to end subsidy payment on petrol.
The crisis in the fuel distribution has forced most Nigerians to accuse the current leadership of organised labour, especially the NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC) of not doing enough to compel the government to resolved the crisis, as was done by their predecessors.
However, NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said the union has kept the government from increasing the pump price of petrol and removing subsidy and deserved the commendation of Nigerians than knocks.
Wabba spoke at the weekly episode organised by an online newspaper with the theme: “Unending Fuel Crisis, Attendant Consequences and Way Forward.”
Instead of coming together to support us, people are shifting blame to us. Rather than shift blame, every citizen should play an active role in holding the government accountable. People play the blame game either due to propaganda or for the lack of information. People often forget they have a duty to hold those they have elected into these offices accountable,” Ayuba said.
The event was also attended by the President of the Independent Petroleum Marketing Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Chinedu Okoronkwo, actress and activist, Kate Henshaw and other Nigerians.
Wabba said the NLC has done its best and that the major role of the union was to protect workers’ rights, saying if not for the union’s effort, things would have been worse in the country.
He criticised the government’s failure to solve the country’s energy crisis, saying: “The energy problem the world is facing today would have been of advantage to us if we were refining and selling. The issue facing Nigeria today can be linked to the neoliberal policies we make, which are deliberate. The management of subsidies is also not done transparently. Energy is everything and without energy, there will be no life. Diesel, for instance, has been fully deregulated in Nigeria, but up to date, it has no advantage. Many businesses are closing up because they cannot run their generators due to the high cost of diesel.”
Wabba recalled that the current government had claimed that two of Nigeria’s refineries would be operational in 2020, but by 2022, the four refineries have remained shutdown.
