NLC demands end to petrol, aviation fuel scarcity

….tells FG enough is enough

As the scarcity of Petroleum products has extended to the aviation sector crippling flights and threatening other national economy, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday tasked the Federal Goverment to treat the problem as a national emergency, saying that enough is enough.
The 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 one hundred percent importation of refined petroleum products. 
Wabba warned that there is an extent to which the people can endure the current hardship occasioned by the scarcity of refined petroleum products. 
“There is a limit the people can stomach prevailing disruptions caused by petrol scarcity especially increased fares and associated dislocations in land, air, rail and water transportation and indeed hiccups in the manufacturing sector all linked to the current scarcity of refined petroleum products in the country.  
“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.  In short, today’s reality screams “Crisis Foretold”. 
“Currently, a litre of aviation fuel sells 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.  
The NLC President said the Congress has warned of the grand danger of outsourcing the nation’s  energy needs to foreign interests, the looming crisis of energy insecurity, adulterated petroleum products, capital flight, decline in productivity, de-investment in the Nigerian economy, massive loss of jobs and upsurge in criminality cum violence all over the country.
On the way out, he stated that as clearly captured in the Nigerian Workers’ Charter of Demands, the federal government must seriously look the way of local refining of petroleum in Nigeria. He said, “We had severally identified the complete rehabilitation of our public refineries and the building of new refineries, both public and private, including modular refineries as the only sustainable panacea out of this national embarrassment and vulnerability in the security of our energy sector. 
“With the current surge in the price of crude oil, we urge the Federal Government to make judicious use of the bumper harvest of petro-dollars to fix our oil refineries. We must re-think Nigeria’s hydrocarbon as a strategic asset for sustainable wealth creation and development. 
“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 expressed that despite the claims that Diesel and Aviation fuel had been deregulated based on import model, the products are still scarce and expensive proving that deregulation is not the answer to the crisis in our downstream oil sub-sector. 
“Now is the time to go back to the basics. Fix our local Refineries! Build new Refineries!! Local Refining is the answer! 
The Nigeria Labour Congress wishes to reiterate its position as contained in the Nigerian Workers’ Charter of Demands that the government must adopt the policy of local refining and thus must rehabilitate our refineries,” he stressed.