Labour, Oil Marketers, Others Express Divergent Views on Fuel Subsidy Removal
NLC canvasses alternative policy to subsidy
Organised Labour and some petroleum products marketers, analysts and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) yesterday expressed divergent views over the removal of Nigeria’s controversial petrol subsidy.
While the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) in separate events, insisted that the government should ramp up gas penetration in the form of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to take off the fixation on petrol, the oil marketers and CSOs stressed that wholesale removal was inevitable.
The marketers, civil society groups and others, again appealed to the incoming administration to abolish the controversial fuel subsidy and save the nation's economy from further hurting.
They also advised the incoming administration to rally the relevant stakeholders in the subsidy discourse to ensure a hitch-free removal, urging the government to try to hit the ground running once inaugurated on May 29.
They made the assertions yesterday in Lagos at a Stakeholders Roundtable Discourse, themed: "Impact of Deregulation on the Nigerian Downstream Petroleum Sector: Analysing Perceptions and Realities of Gains and Expectation of Full PMS Subsidy Removal."
The session jointly organised by Technowell, and IT form, Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) and Centre for Sustainable Mobility and Access Development (CensMAD) was aimed at fostering discussions and sustainable solutions for the challenges facing the sector.
Participants at the forum were drawn from representatives of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN); National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Trade Union Congress (TUC); Publish What You Pay (PWYP) as well as Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) amongst others.
Speaking at the forum, a former President of the TUC, Peter Esele, said that for the past 24 years, Nigeria's democratically elected governments missed the opportunity to remove subsidy when the country was at its best economic shape.
He said the unbundling of the downstream oil sector has immense benefits for Nigeria, pointing out that it would lead to rapid inflow of investments, guarantee easy entry and easy exit and generate more revenue for the country.
"But what is of interest to me is that more jobs will be created and we expect that whatever that will accrue from subsidy removal will be actually used for what it meant and not that politicians will unbutton their trousers while the rest of us tighten our trousers.
“So I think the union is not the problem and I think subsidy removal should have been removed 24 years ago; and this outgoing government had a huge opportunity by removing the subsidy in 2015," Esele said.
He expressed the hope that Dangote Refinery would compel the government to make a decision on the controversial subsidy policy.
“Dangote Refinery will go a long way in pushing the government whether to take the subsidy away or not. What is the reason for that? Dangote refinery has a debt to pay because people funded the refinery and he has profit he is looking forward to. So in view of this, we're going to settle him in naira or dollars?"Esele added.
In his intervention, Chief Executive Officer of CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf, lamented that the country does not have a consensus about the strategy to exit the subsidy regime, adding that the incoming government must understand the level of hunger and anger in the country.
Yusuf argued that there were some powerful vested interests in the subsidy policy that had made it impossible to be stopped.
Yusuf stated: “I have a strong feeling that the beneficiaries of this subsidy don't want to let go and they are stoking the fire about protest.”
On his part, the National Operations Controller of IPMAN, Mike Osatuyi, said the country needed patriotic leaders who will use the subsidy resources to ensure that average Nigerians have a good quality of life in terms of education, healthcare and housing.
Also, Executive Secretary of HEDA, Sulaimon Arigbabu, said the government should as a matter of urgency consider subsidising social programmes, provide access to electricity, and also provide fleets of transportation alternatives to alleviate the suffering of the citizens.
A guest lecturer and Professor of Transport and Environment, Lagos State University, Odewumi Samuel, opined that the government must facilitate logistics and have a good working relationship with every stakeholder in the downstream industry.
Samuel administration should immediately set up a committee of competent team to drive the process of the removal which may be headed by the minister. The team is to identify and develop engagement procedures with relevant stakeholders especially labour, media, students, civil society organisations.
"The unworkable practice of a very president holding a very critical ministry down as a side portfolio should be jettisoned. The president can still retain close marking supervision of the ministry, but there must be a full time minister that will be on the job at the ministry as a senior minister.”