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From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has urged the Federal Government to subsidise crude oil for the Dangote Refinery in order to alleviate the rising cost of living associated with the attendant effect of fuel price hike.
TUC President, Festus Osifo, made the call at a press conference held in Abuja to address pressing issues confronting the country. Osifo attributed the recent increase in the pump prices of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS),popularly called petrol to the deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector.
He noted that, while the government declared an end to fuel subsidy in May 2023, the subsequent fluctuations in the exchange rate have led to renewed subsidy-like conditions.
He lameneted that the current pump price of petrol is significantly higher than what it was before subsidy removal.
To ensure energy security for the country, the labour leader outlined three critical demands which included; improved accessibility, enhanced availability, and greater affordability of fuel.
Osifo equally proposed a special intervention scheme aimed at providing a favorable exchange rate for crude oil sold to Dangote in order to stabilise fuel prices
The union President also canvassed that, all marketers be granted access to products from Dangote Refinery. He further urged the government to clarify the refinery’s production capacity and expedite necessary approvals to increase output.
“We must be able to buy this product. We want the price of the product to go below where it was before, not just where it was before. But, it will go below current prices, if we attend to issues bordering on foreign exchange. Some of you may ask, why forex again? Government said they are selling crude to Dangote Refinery with naira. But you know crude is an international product. So it is actually priced in dollars.
“So what you now do is that you have to convert the value of the dollars to naira. So the question is that, what is the exchange rate you are using to do the conversion? Is it NAFEM exchange rate? Because something must be used to do the convertion. So if that exchange rate today, as we know, is NAFEM exchange rate, that would be over N1,600/$1
But government can intervene in that sector by doing what we have opined earlier. If that is done, that would mean that Government would not be subsidizing consumption but production. That will help Dangote Refinery to employ more Nigerians and make its operations much more efficient which will eventually crash petrol price to where it was as of June last year,” he stated.
Additionally, Osifo emphasised the importance of consequential adjustments to wages, following a national agreement on the new minimum wage.
He urged state governments to promptly implement these adjustments to help ease the financial burden on workers amid ongoing economic challenges.
