| Fuel price war Queues return as Nigerians await deregulation
By SEYE OJO
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
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Eberechukwu
Photo: THE SUN PUBLISHING
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At the moment, war drums are reverberating throughout the country. The tension hanging thickly over Nigeria’s horizon can literally be sliced with a knife. The people are warming up for a battle with the federal government.
The combustible element is the federal government’s proposed deregulation of the downstream oil and gas sector of the economy. By the policy, the government will remove the subsidy on the products so that open market forces will determine fuel pump prices.
Already, organised labour has threatened a total showdown should the Federal Government go ahead with the deregulation. Long queues of vehicles returned to filling stations last weekend in anticipation that government might announce the policy on Sunday November 1. This, as gathered, was unconnected with the hoarding of the commodity by the marketers in order to maximise profit. Fillers from the government revealed that the announcement has been postponed to January 2010.
If government succeeds in introducing the policy, the people should be prepared to buy petrol at about N104 per litre. As of today, the official pump price of petrol stands at N65 per litre. The same motor premium spirit was N22 per litre when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo came to power in 1999.
Obasanjo, had in 2003, embarked on a vigorous campaign to sell the idea to a sceptical populace. But the move suffered a setback after a prolonged confrontation with Nigerian workers led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, now the Edo State governor. As a result of the resistance, the administration commenced a partial deregulation of diesel and kerosene prices. Kerosene was later taken out of the deregulation list and sold at a controlled price of N50 per litre. At the twilight of his administration in 2007, Obasanjo hiked the price of petrol from N60 to N70. Many Nigerians insist the move was meant to punish Nigerians for routing against deregulation.
In January this year, the official price of petrol was slashed from N70 to N65 and it has since remained so. The Federal Government, then, promised that there would not be any increment on the pump price of petrol till the year runs out.
Nigerians were surprised to read the announcement credited to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on the pages of newspapers that Federal Government was concluding arrangement to announce deregulation of the downstream sector on Sunday November 1, 2009. The Federal Government has since debunked the announcement through the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode.
A bombshell fell on the Nigerian landscape when the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) raised the alarm late last month that the pump price of petrol would jump to N104 per litre after the introduction of deregulation policy. The NLC Deputy President, Comrade Promise Adewusi, broke the news in Abuja shortly after an emergency meeting between the FG and NLC ended in a deadlock. He said the NLC was totally against deregulation.
The congress’ position, he stated, was informed by the present prices of diesel and kerosene. At the time diesel was deregulated, the price was N45. “But as I speak to you now, the price of diesel is between N120 and N250 depending on the part of the country.”
The news came after an alleged revelation that some unnamed clique within the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is ripping off the corporation through a daily collection of $500, 000 (about N75 million) cut from Trafigura, Glencore and Vitol to sustain the importation contracts awarded by an NNPC subsidiary, the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company Limited (PPMC). In a swift reaction, however, the NNPC Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Dr. Livi Ajuonuma, described the allegation as a lie and a cheap blackmail.
The Labour and Civil Society groups on Thursday October 29 staged a rally against the planned deregulation in Abuja. The rally kicked off at about 7:00.a.m. with speeches, chanting of solidarity songs and a long procession. The workers moved from Berger Junction in Wuse, through the city to the Federal Capital Minister’s office, and terminated at the National Assembly Complex where they presented a protest letter to the minister and the Senate. The labour threatened to proceed on a full blown nationwide strike if President Umar Yar’Adua insisted on carrying out his plan to deregulate.
The rally led by NLC President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar was attended by members of Trade Union Congress (TUC), Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO), Lagos Lawyer and President, West African Bar Association, Femi Falana, Kaduna-based human rights crusader, Shehu Sani, market women, farmers and representatives of Students’ Union Government (SUG) among others.
Said Omar: “Why I am appealing to President Umar Yar’Adua personally is because I see danger coming in the nation. The issue of deregulation started with Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, he did not implement it. Sanni Abacha came, he did not implement it. Abdulsalami Abubakar came, he did not implement it. All they did was to increase fuel prices. Olusegun Obasanjo came, he did not implement it but increased fuel prices over 11 times more than others.”
Reacting to the rally, the Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili, said the federal government remained open to negotiation, debate and constructive dialogue on the whole issue of deregulation to collectively define the way forward for the country.
Her words: “As we are all aware, this is a difficult time for our country. The survival of our democracy should remain our collective responsibility. Organising a national protest to drive home issues that could be resolved through constructive dialogue might create opportunity for hoodlums to foment trouble at a time when we are managing the successful implementation of the amnesty programme in the Niger Delta.
“The federal government expects the organised labour to explore fully these opportunities and engage in meaningful discussion with government to arrive at a compromise on the proposed policy.”
The General Secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Comrade Elijah Okougbo, also advised the Federal Government to shelve the idea of total deregulation of the downstream sector.
“Obasanjo in 2003 engaged in guided deregulation by breaking the monopoly of major marketers and the NNPC. Major marketers could import refined petroleum products at that time, while NNPC got supplies from the refineries. The same Obasanjo in his wisdom, saw the futility of total deregulation and that was why he did not subscribe to it while he was in office.
“The Niger Delta crisis led to the vandalisation of pipelines, especially crude oil pipelines. The same thing is applicable to the two refineries in Port Harcourt. The generating plants have not been functioning well while the refineries presently are producing below capacity.”
In justifying the policy, some sources in the government are saying the policy, if implemented, will create a level playing ground for Nigerians to import petroleum products and also give licences to Nigerians to own refineries. This, they believe, will break government’s monopoly of the product.
As war clouds form over the deregulation, Nigerians wait with bated breath as events unfold. |
