Labour mobilises, says increase illogical, illegal Increment insensitive – Fayose Better for us – IPMAN Fuel queues persist
By Abdullahi M. Gulloma, Musa Adamu and Moses John, Abuja, Rotimi Ojomoyela, Ado-Ekiti, Muhammad Tanko Shittu, Jos
Amidst harsh economic situation Nigerians currently pass through, the federal government yesterday announced an increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petroleum, from N86.50 to N145 per litre.
It is coming at a time Nigerians still groan under the pain of fuel scarcity, a challenge the federal government assured will be overcome in the next three months.
And expectedly, the development is generating mixed reactions from across the country, with the Nigeria Labour Congress threatening a showdown if government does not revert to the old price.
The NLC which also described the new price as illogical and illegal, clarified that it was not part of the process as claimed by the federal government.
And while Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state describes the change in price as insensitive, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) says it is a welcome development.
Announcing the new price yesterday while briefing State House Correspondents in Abuja, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, assured that the new policy would improve supply and competition, and eventually drive down pump prices as experienced with diesel.
The minister said the increase would also lead to increased product availability, encourage investments in refineries and other parts of the downstream sector and prevent diversion of petroleum products and also set a stable environment for the downstream sector in the country.
“We share the pains of Nigerians but, as we have constantly said, the inherited difficulties of the past and the challenges of the current times imply that we must take difficult decisions on these sorts of critical national issues. Along with this decision, the federal government has in the 2016 budget made an unprecedented social protection provision to cushion the current challenges.
“We believe in the long term, that improved supply and competition will drive down prices. The DPR and PPPRA have been mandated to ensure strict regulatory compliance, including dealing decisively,” he said.
Kachikwu also announced measures put in place by the government to ensure effective deregulation of the PMS.
“In order to increase and stabilise the supply of the product, any Nigerian entity is now free to import the product, subject to existing quality specifications and other guidelines issued by Regulatory Agencies.
“All oil marketers will be allowed to import PMS on the basis of FOREX procured from secondary sources and accordingly PPPRA template will reflect this in the pricing of the product.
“Pursuant to this, PPPRA has informed me that it will be announcing a new price band effective today, 11th May, 2016 and that the new price for PMS will not be above N145 per litre,” he said.
The minister told journalists that the decisions were arrived at a meeting of various stakeholders presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and attended by the leadership of the Senate, House of Representatives, Governors Forum, and labour unions (Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress, National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria).
He said the main reason for the current problem is the inability of importers of petroleum products to source foreign exchange at the official rate due to the massive decline of foreign exchange earnings of the federal government.
“As a result, private marketers have been unable to meet their approximate 50% portion of total national supply of PMS,” he said.
Giving further insight in the Q2 price modulation policy, Executive Secretary, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, Sotonye Iyoyo, clarified that the NNPC Retail stations on the outskirts of major cities have been advised to sell at price lower than N145 per litre.
She said: ‘To meet the consumption demand of the nation, importers will henceforth be permitted to source for their foreign exchange requirements from the secondary sources.
“PPPRA is conscious of the difficulties that Nigerians have been going through in the last few months and to ameliorate this situation, we shall continue to modulate pricing in accordance with prevailing market dynamics thereby ensuring fair value to all citizens.”
The agency, she said, acted in exercise of its statutory power enshrined in the PPPRA Act No 8, 2003, which empowers it to moderate pricing for the industry.
“In performing this role, the PPPRA commenced a petroleum products price modulation framework on the 1st of January, 2016, with the aim of ensuring a ‘fit-for-all’ approach that seeks to serve the interest of the Nigerian consumers, marketers and the economy.”
And in a sharp reaction, the NLC has threatened to mobilise Nigerian workers and other Civil Society Organisations to resist what it called the unilateral increase, describing it as the height of insensitivity, which shall be “resisted by the Nigeria Labour Congress and its civil society allies”.
General Secretary of the union, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, who stated this yesterday, said the National Executive Council of the congress, had been summoned, while state councils have been directed to start mobilising their members for a shutdown over the action of government.
Peter said: “With the imposition on the citizenry of criminal and unjustifiable electricity tariff and resultant darkness and other economic challenges brought on by the devaluation of the Naira and spiraling inflation, the least one had expected at this point in time was another policy measure that would further make life more miserable for the ordinary Nigerians.
“The latest increase is the most audacious and cruel in the history of product price increase as it represents not only about 80 per cent increase but it is tied to the black market exchange rate.
“Furthermore, the process through which government arrived at this is both illogical and illegal as the board of the PPPRA is not duly constituted. In our previous statements and communiqués, we had stressed the need for reconstituting the boards of NNPC and PPPRA and wean both away from the overbearing influence of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources who has assumed the role of a Sole Administrator.
“The allusion to the fact that the this increase was arrived at after due consultation with stake holders is not only ridiculous and fallacious, it goes to show that the brief meeting held today during which government was advised to shelve the idea until at least it meets with the appropriate organs of the Congress was in bad faith.
“Accordingly, we urge the government to revert the prices to what they were. We would want to put everybody on notice that we shall resist this criminal increase with every means legitimate.
“Already an emergency NEC meeting has been convened to deliberate on the next line of action. Meanwhile, our affiliates, state councils and civil society allies are requested to commence mobilisation immediately.”
Meanwhile, Governor Fayose has described the increment as insensitive and demonstration
of the level of hatred the President Mohammadu Buhari- led All Progressives Congress government has for Nigerians.
The governor, who said the over 70 per cent increment was another vindication of his predictions on what to expect in 2016, added that it was now clear that the scarcity of petrol being experienced in the last three months was deliberately orchestrated by the federal government to pave way for the already conceived increment.
A statement by the governor’s Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, quoted the governor as saying, “Nigerians are now left at the mercy of political liars who took over power by deception and are governing by deceit.”
He said he was waiting for the reaction of those who took to the streets to protest when fuel subsidy was removed by the Dr Goodluck Jonathan administration in 2012, urging labour unions in the country to stand by their members always, not minding the political party in government.
He said; “When they were seeking for votes from Nigerians, they promised to reduce petrol pump price to from N87 to N45 per litre, they promised to create three million jobs per year, they said $1 will be equal to N1 and above all, they promised to pay unemployed youths
N5, 000 stipend and provide one meal a day to pupils nationwide.
“Instead of fulfilling their promises, they have increased petrol pump price to N145 per litre, increased electricity tariffs, retrenched thousands of workers and imposed untold hardships on Nigerians.
“As they did in 2012, if labour leaders do not also stand up for the people at this time, posterity will not forgive them.” Meanwhile, the independent marketers have lauded the new price, describing it as a welcome development.
IPMAN National Secretary, Alhaji Danladi Garba Fasali, made the commendation in an exclusive telephone chat with Blueprint late yesterday.
“We are pleased with the deregulation because it will allow for strong competition whereby marketers would import more of the product and eventually the price would come down,” he said.
The IPMAN scribe explained that; “before the deregulation, only twenty per cent of our members were importing the product, but now with this development of deregulation I assure you that more than eighty per cent of us will import the product and put it into the market.”
He recalled that when gas was deregulated, more marketers were able to import the product, arguing that “it has reached a stage where gas was sold at N130, but as the product is now much in the market, gas is now sold at about ninety Naira.”
