Fuel Crisis; Labour Hails Senate, Threatens Mass Action if Shortage Persists

Organized labour has hailed the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on Thursday for directing the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to cut short its recess and immediately convene industry stakeholders meeting in a bid to end the ongoing fuel crisis which has imposed  hardship on the citizens.

NEC member of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Issa Aremu observed in Kaduna on Thursday that  the protracted fuel crisis was a reflection of “crisis of corporate governance in the petroleum sector”.

According to the labour leader, the bane of down stream sector was “abysmal absence of accountability, transparency and openness in the administration of the petroleum resources of Nigeria, adding that only the parliament can make a difference in “exposing the rot” in the sector.” Comrade Aremu said the Senate leadership by urging relevant  committee members to resume duty has shown that the legislature is truly  “a vent for public grievances, a “useful organ of public opinion” adding that legislators cannot be in recess when those who elected them are groaning in filling stations.

The labour leader  urged the legislators to demand for “consequences for the actions and inactions of petroleum  sector operators in the product shortage scam”. “There is a deep seated conflict of interest in the downstream sector; regulators are  operators, regulators are importers, importers are products hoarders, regulators are also saboteurs, definitely we have a sector capture in our hands, Nigeria and Nigerians need liberation” he remarked.

The Labour leader who disclosed  that “NNPC is the only public corporation that annually awards its directors long service incentives for no service at all, for non-functioning refineries” called for a “total ban on  importation to reinvent domestic refineries and beneficiation to crude oil”.

Comrade Aremu however said if the intervention of the legislature fails to put an end to product shortages, labour may compel all Nigerians to return to street protests like in the past “to force the ruling elite  to face up to the challenges of governance of the most populous promising but badly governed country in the continent.”

“The one month long fuel shortage has further worsened poverty, puts productivity on hold. We dare not enter 2018, new year with this recurring old mess” he noted.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Senator Kabiru Marafa,  had disclosed that  following the directive of the Senate President,  the Committee has summoned the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Maikanti Baru and other relevant stakeholders in the petroleum sector to a crucial meeting on Thursday January 4, 2018.

By PRNigeria