‘It is unacceptable’ — labour unions ask FG to end fuel scarcity, price hike

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have called on the federal government to end fuel shortage and price hikes in the country.

In the past few days, Nigerians have been grappling with petrol scarcity with queues in filling stations across the country.

The situation has resulted in a boom in black market sales, while there have been insinuations that oil marketers may be hoarding the product to force a hike in the price.

TheCable had reported that some black marketers sold the product for between N320 and N350 per litre.

In a statement on Saturday, Ayuba Wabba and Festus Osifo, presidents of NLC and TUC, respectively, said the fuel shortage, price hikes and avoidable long queues in filling stations are “unacceptable and no longer tolerable”.

The labour leaders said they are disturbed by the persistent shortage and uncontrollable prices that players in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry are meting out to Nigerians.

They noted that the persistent petrol shortage has become a source of pain to Nigerians.

“No excuse is good enough to cripple the country,” the statement reads.

“If there are challenges, they should be fixed. We have a government in power to fix challenges not to make excuses.”

“All these have tragic consequences for the Nigerian people and debilitating effects on the health of the economy, which itself is not in a good state.

“We are reliably informed that the shortage is deliberately fostered by players in the downstream sector in other to hike the price far above the government-approved threshold.

“It is an added problem when non-state actors begin to arrogate to themselves the power to determine the price of a litre of fuel far above the rate pegged by government in the current subsidy regime.”

The labour leaders said Nigerians and taxpayers currently spend trillions of naira annually to subsidise petrol.

They added that Nigerians could not be exploited and made to pay over N240 per litre when the current ex-depot price is N148.19k per litre.

They noted that the opportunity cost of the subsidy payment is enormous and yet, the benefit of the subsidy regime is gradually being eroded.

According to them, no country develops when its people are subjected to perennial hardship and industries are shackled by unnecessary chains of miseries.

“It is more disturbing that the government is equally demonstrating a high level of culpability in the unwholesome situation by its silence and unwillingness to frontally and publicly address the harrowing experiences in the current situation,” the statement reads.

“No concerned and responsive government will bury its head in the sands like the proverbial Ostrich while the citizens are being brutally exploited.

“We are strongly worried that leaving our energy security and sovereignty in the hands of unscrupulous capitalists and their collaborators will further plunge this nation into the economic abyss we are working hard to avoid.”

The unions said they are ready to engage the government and assist in all ways possible to overcome the country’s present challenges.

They also called on the regulatory and law enforcement agencies to do more to protect Nigerians from exploitation.