Francis Okeke
12 November 2009
Abuja — Chieftains of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday refused to buy into government's plan to deregulate the downstream petroleum sector, saying that government must destroy the cabal in the oil sector, resuscitate existing refineries and build new ones as well as provide functional social amenities before embarking on deregulation.
NLC made its position known at a meeting aimed at resolving the controversy surrounding government's moves to deregulate the oil sector.
The Federal Government team led by the Chairman of the Deregulation Policy Implementation Committee and Minister of Finance Dr. Mansur Muktar had since Tuesday engaged the Central Working Committee (CWC) of the NLC on the merits of the deregulation policy and why Nigerians should embrace it.
Also on the government's team were Minister of Petroleum Rilwanu Lukman, Minister of State for Petroleum Odein Ajumogobia, Minister of Labour Adetokunbo Kayode, Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo as well as the President's Chief Economic Adviser, Tanimu Yakubu Kurfi.
The unionists who came from across the 36 states of the federation for the meeting which was held at the Labour House, rejected government's arguments on the need for deregulation. They insisted that government must address "issues like the cabal which government admits exists in the downstream petroleum sector. They must resuscitate the refineries and build new ones as well as provide social amenities."
"Government has been saying deregulation for decades now but the only thing we have seen is price increase and the same problems that they have used as an excuse to deregulate still persist. You should be able to deal with this cabal which you mentioned because you know them and let us move forward from there," the labour chiefs said.
They insisted that government must bring "fresh people into the system so that new ideas of tackling new challenges will deliver the much desired change in the downstream sector. A situation where you keep recycling the same people over and over again will not augur well for the sector due to the application of outdated solutions to current challenges," they said.
One labour leader said "our roads are terribly bad. What guarantees do we have that the deregulation plan will not further impoverish us while it empowers a privileged few capitalists and those in government? Honourable Minister, maybe you don't know because of your advantaged background, but a journey of 60 kilometres in some parts of this country takes up to three hours or more and government has been removing subsidies for several years now without us seeing any benefits.
This time around, we are saying that government must first put in place all the essentials like in other OPEC countries before they even begin to talk of deregulation."
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Finance Minister Mansur Muktar said the interaction served as an avenue for government to explain to the NLC why deregulation is inevitable if the country must get it right in the downstream oil sector.
He said "the meeting provided us the opportunity to really explain to the members of the leadership of Labour the underlying objectives of the reforms in the downstream petroleum sector and to get their perspective, input and feed back in relation to some of the measures."
He added, "It is part of an ongoing process of dialogue. We are very keen to carry all the stakeholders along and I think to that extent, we have achieved our objectives. Of course as you understand, the meeting ended on a note that we continue to dialogue to explore a win-win situation."
Saying some progress was made at the meeting, Muhtar said "certainly, we all agreed that we are working towards a common objective in ensuring that whatever we do is in the best interest of Nigeria and Nigerians. We are also able to communicate the message of Mr. President's very strong desire and interest to really work towards transforming the economy by ensuring judicious use of scarce resources available to us while being conscious of the need to address short term transitional challenges that might arise in bringing policy measures to achieve our objectives."
NLC's President Comrade Abdulwahed Omar told reporters that the meeting afforded the union the opportunity to educate the government on why it should not go ahead with deregulation. He said "both sides had the opportunity to say what they had. They said their own, you heard them and they mentioned the reason why there should be deregulation.
Deregulation should not be done bottom up. Certain things have to be done to make sure that whatever you call it, whether deregulation or whatever, does not negatively affect the common man, especially the working people of Nigeria."
Speaking on the outcome of the meeting, the NLC boss said "we have not arrived at anything. They have heard us, we have also heard them and we are going to continue with our deliberations."
Asked what NLC would do if government goes ahead and deregulates, he said "the National Executive Council of Congress will also take a decision. What we have been saying is that the simple translation of deregulation is price increase. They have been making use of the example of the GSM telecommunication and we say that cannot be comparable to petroleum products, especially PMS that everybody will have to use whether you have vehicle or not. They said why there should be deregulation, and we said why there shouldn't be deregulation, but the essence of any dialogue is for me to talk you into my idea and you talk me into your idea. Possibly there may be some point of congruence."
Hours after the labour-government meeting ended, Daily Trust learnt last night that NLC leaders set up a 10-man panel headed by its deputy national president Comrade Peters Adeyemi to look into government's presentation and determine if it meets labour's own position "and explore other possibilities in the context of other OPEC countries." The panel, which was given three weeks to submit its report, was told "not to discountenance NLC's previous stand [on deregulation] but to enhance" it. The NUPENG and Civil Service Union presidents as well as NLC state chairmen in Kaduna and Kwara were among the panel's members.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Daily Trust. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
