By Adewale Sanyaolu
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, would soon be convening a meeting with Nigerian Organised Labour, led by the Nigerian Labour Congress(NLC) to discuss the planned nationwide protest by labour unions over the Federal Government’s impending deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, Wednesday assured of government’s commitment to proceed with its planned fuel subsidy removal in 2022, saying there was no going back on full deregulation.
Details of the project implementation revealed that the Osinbajo-led panel is set up to lobby and convince labour to accept fuel subsidy removal and the N5,000 transport palliative and other options to ameliorate the effects on Nigerians.
Ahmed also said a panel chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo would meet with the Nigeria Labour Congress and other stakeholders to consider the proposed N5,000 transport palliative and other options to ameliorate the effects on Nigerians.
Responding to questions by journalists at the public presentation of the 2022 Budget on Wednesday, Ahmed said the Federal Government was set to comply with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 to fully deregulate prices of petroleum products.
She said, “The PIA 2021 has made a provision that indicates that all by-products’ prices will be deregulated, and so far we have been able to deregulate kerosene prices and diesel prices.
“The only product that is still not deregulated is PMS, so we are planning to comply with the law because the PIA is an Act of the National Assembly and a law that we all have a responsibility to abide by. On the proposed N5, 000 transport grant, the minister said the initiative was still at the proposal stage, adding that it was being weighed alongside other proposals aimed at reducing the impact of subsidy removal on Nigerians.”
She added that the government would implement any proposal with greater practicability and wider benefits for the country’s citizens.
Ahmed, who pointed out that the committee was set up to explore the various proposals, disclosed that the panel would resume deliberations after the New Year holiday to engage the NLC and accept its inputs.
She said, “What we did in terms of providing succour to citizens that would be affected by the removal of the fuel subsidy is that, from the Ministry of Finance we made a proposal to say that maybe we should provide a transport subsidy in the sum of N5000 or any amount that would be later agreed on, for between 20 million and 40 million people.”