Funmi Komolafe, Victor Ahiuma-Young and Abdulsalam Muhammad
14 May 2009
FUEL marketers have resumed the importation of petrol, ending a month-long suspension of imports which caused the worst shortage in years.
Also, yesterday, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria and the civil society groups staged a mass rally in Lagos, to protest the planned deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry by government. Thousands of protesters walked through major streets in Lagos mainland from the National Stadium, Surulere to the Lagos State Government secretariat in Alausa, Ikeja.
Following the clearing of hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidy arrears by government, Mr. Wale Tinubu, chairman of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and chief executive of Oando, told Reuters normal fuel supplies should be restored within a month, lending credence to President Yar'Adua's assurance that fuel scarcity should abate in two weeks.
"Import orders have been placed over the last two weeks. As the government's overall liability to the marketers has reduced, the marketers have responded by partially ordering what they would normally have ordered," Tinubu said in an interview.
"The ships have started coming in. I would say over the next two to four weeks there should be normalcy," he said.
Subsidy payments to the marketers had been delayed and a sharp depreciation in the value of the naira currency also meant there was an additional shortfall.
"In the process of all these delays, the marketers had no choice but to stop the importation of products because we were at over $1 billion in outstanding subsidy claims," Tinubu said.
He said there was an outstanding balance of around $400 million still to be paid but that a first tranche of $150-200 million had been approved and the remainder would probably be paid within the next 14 days.
Protesters demand N52,000 minimum wage
Aside the protest against deregulation, the labour and civil society groups held the rally to press home the demand for a new minimum wage and the full implementation of the report of the Justice Uwais-led Electoral Reform Committee.
FG hails peaceful rally
The Federal Government in its reaction, commended the labour movements over the peaceful rally.
Fielding questions from State House Correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Prince Kayode Adetokunbo, described the rally as conforming to modern international practices.
His words: "today that labour went on national rally, I learnt that everything went on well and it was generally peaceful, as they assured and as we expect of them as matured people."
The minister urged the NLC which plans to hold similar demonstrations in several other cities across the nation to ensure that violence did not erupt at any of the locations.
The minister disclosed that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the Employee Compensation Bill at yesterday's meeting.
The Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili, explained further that the Bill would be sent immediately to the National Assembly.
The Bill seeks a maximum compensation for Nigerian workers both in the public and private sectors, in form of treatment and rehabilitation in the event of injuries resulting from accident while on the job.
"The bill when passed into law will benefit not only the government in particular as it allows for long term follow up to ensure that injured workers are treated to the end rehabilitate where necessary" she said.
NLC takes up Yar'Adua's challenge
The NLC responded to President Umaru Yar'Adua's call Tuesday that anyone opposed to the government's white's paper could sponsor a bill. Consequently NLC president, Abdulwaheed Omar, announced that Labour would sponsor a bill based on the total adoption of the Uwais report with the signature of 20 million Nigerians.
The protest which was hitch-free and effectively monitored by men of the Nigeria Police Force ended at the Lagos State secretariat, Alausa, where the NLC president, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar presented their demands to Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State.
Comrade Omar demanded an apology from the Minister of Labour & Productivity, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, for referring to some Nigerians as "miscreants and hoodlums" whom the minister said could hijack the protest.
The protesters displayed placards some of which read "No to deregulation", "N52,500 minium wage or nothing", "On Uwais report we stand", etc
Comrade Omar drew the attention of the government to the hardship that Nigerians have been going through to purchase fuel "this is a deliberate ploy to tell Nigerians that deregulation is justified". He said Nigerians would not stand by and watch other Nigerians suffer "therefore we say capital No to deregulation".
On the national minium wage, he said "we have made it clear that Nigerian workers need a new minimum wage that we can call a living wage and we have made our calculations to come out with a reasonable amount of money after collation of data".
Speaking on the electoral reform, the NLC president recalled President Yar'Adua's promise that he would effect an electoral reform.
"Unfortunately, what we saw was the Federal Executive Council doctoring this (Uwais committee) report to irrelevance. They removed the vital areas that if implemented would have created conducive atmosphere for people to be elected free and fair into offices".
Fashola lauds labour
Governor Fashola noted that a few years ago, such a protest was not possible "may be soldiers would have been deployed to stop you, maybe tear gas would have been fired by now. The reason why this is happening is that freedom has been won.
Today, there is no longer the question of whether you need police permit. That is a major reason why you need to congratulate yourselves".
The Governor said as long as this "orderly and well articulated protests are coordinated and implemented, there won't be any reason for police permit".
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