The Organized Labour has warned against pump price increase; saying that the Nigeria Labour movement would not be used as bate to impose new price regime on hapless poor Nigerians.
Labour has, therefore, demanded that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) must stage a policy dialogue on subsidy and fuel price modulation; insisting that the raging argument on whether there is a subsidy or not has not been really interrogated.
In an exclusive interview with TribuneOnline, the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, said a lot of shady deals happens on the issue of subsidy and in the importation of refined products.
He pointed out that Nigerian workers cannot be deceived to commend the recent reduction in pump price; because it was deceit, ploy and scheme to impose an era of a continuous increase in fuel pump price as being dictated by the IMF and the World Bank.
Wabba stated that the whole plan behind the recent reduction in pump price to N121 per litre was to give the impression that the pump price is now being determined and influenced by prices of crude oil in the international market and thereby handed the power to the oil marketers to continue a regime of price increase with impunity.
Citing the example of how the IMF and the World Bank destroy the Nigeria currency through continuous devaluation, the NLC president reminded Nigerians that due to the prompting from the IMF and World Bank, the country devalued her currency from when 75kobo to one dollar, N1 to a dollar, N22 to a dollar till it now gets to N450 to a dollar.
“Every administration that has come in, in Nigeria the World Bank will come in with three policies- to devalue the currency; privatize, and remove subsidy. These are the three items, consistently from the time of Obasanjo to date and we have not seen an end to it yet.
“We have continuously devalue our currency. You remember from N22 to a dollar, from N1 to a dollar, from 75 kobo to a dollar. Today, we are talking of N450 to a dollar.” He lamented.
ALSO READ: Rep sponsors 30 youths for police employment in one year
To this end, he warned that the Nigerian Labour movement, workers and masses would not be deceived and use as bate to impose the anticipated new price regime of consistent price increase.
Rather, he insisted that the government should reactivate the nation’s refineries, which has always been the position of NLC and the Organised Labour.
Comrade Wabba said: “We still maintain that as an oil-producing country successive government has promised that we are going to activate our refineries and produce for domestic use and remove all the bottleneck associate with price fluctuation. As I speak to you, no Nigeria will be a happy person because we are the only OPEC country that is still importing refined products.
“Marketers on the other hand are saying that forex is not available. What is the exchange rate today? So, we don’t want to be used as a bait to now impose a new price regime which clearly is what is going to happen.
“If you say markers should import and it is going to be at the current exchange rate which is above N400 to a dollar, it means even if the price has crashed to $20 because our money has been devalued, then we are going to buy at exorbitant price. The only way to end this exploitation is for us to refine.”
He added: “This is the situation, it is good that they have reduced (pump price), but the question remains: What is actually the template that is being used? The issue of whether there is a subsidy or not has not been interrogated.
“Our position is that subsidy is inefficiency but don’t transfer it to the consumers, because at the end of the day, that is what they want to achieve by saying that they reduce the price and subsequently, price will just go up. And they will say it is because there is now deregulation, or there is now removal of subsidy.
“No, it is like bate and we don’t want to be joining the conversation of bate, we want to join in the conversation of what will address this issue, where that importation and the racketeering associated with importation will be put to a permanent stop.”
The NLC president pointed out that the marketers would source their money to import fuel and at the end transfer the increase to the masses.
According to him, “if that will happen, it means this is just like a temporary measure or a temporary arrangement to lure Nigerians into the contradiction of transferring the inefficiency that is called fuel subsidy for Nigerians to continue to bear; which is what we don’t want to hear.”
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Health Scare Over Buhari Fuels Crisis In Aso Rock
MORE information has emerged on the latest crisis rocking the Presidential Villa and the insistence of the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, that all relevant agencies of government must enforce the Quarantine Order signed by her husband, President Muhammadu Buhari, on everyone, including those in the corridors of power… Read full story
Nigeria’s COVID-19 Cases Hit 15,682 As NCDC Confirms 501 New Infections
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed 501 new cases of COVID-19 in the country, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 15,682… Read full story
Edo Poll: Fresh Legal Hurdle For Oshiomhole, APC
A fresh legal hurdle is about becoming a banana peel for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as its chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and his associates celebrate their supremacy contest victory over embattled member and governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki… Read full story
DSS, Police Begin Probe Of Alleged Shooting At Aso Rock
THE Department of State Services (DSS) and the Police High Command have begun full investigations into the alleged shooting by the police personnel attached to the wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, which allegedly occurred at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday… Read full story
APC Appeal Committee Validates Obaseki’s Disqualification
Governor of Edo State and aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki may have reached the end of the road in his quest to fly the gubernatorial flag of the All Progressives Congress in the forthcoming September 19, 2020 election in Edo State… Read full story
Aso Rock Crisis: Shots Fired To Stop Buhari’s PA’s Getaway Car —Sources
THERE were indications Saturday that shots that were reportedly heard inside the presidential villa, Abuja on Thursday evening, were fired in an attempt to stop Sabiu Tunde Yusuf from fleeing in a getaway car after refusing to self-isolate on return from a trip as required for COVID-19 containment protocols… Read full story
Havoc In The Air! COVID-19: Aviation, Tourism Sectors In Disarray • 124,500 travel agencies jobs threatened
WHEN coronavirus broke out in Wuhan, China late last year, not many countries took notice, but by the turn of 2020 and the end of the first quarter of the year, the whole world had not only taken notice: millions of the citizens had become victims of the virus… Read full story
Ordering Controversy: The Pros And Cons Of Buhari’s Executive Order 10
Save for President William Henry Harrison, all United States presidents, beginning with George Washington in 1789, had issued one executive order or the other, and the practice of using such executive power also has its origin in the same United State, with the first ever executive order, issued on June 8, 1789 by… Read full story
Stop Nepotism, Embrace Others, Clark Tells Buhari
Elder statesman and convener of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, on Friday, admonished President Muhammadu Buhari to drop the toga of nepotism and injustice against the South South, saying “things cannot continue this way… Read full story
Ibadan Records Third Killing In Two Weeks As 21-Yr-Old Lady Is Macheted To Death
One Grace Oshiagwu was macheted to death on Saturday by yet-to-be identified persons, in Ibadan, Oyo State. The deceased, a 21-year-old lady was killed in a church mission building at Idi-ori Area,Shasha, off the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway… Read full story
Pulling Down Christopher Columbus’ Buhari Statues
YOU may not like their reckless consumption of drugs, the airs they put on as “stars” and the pumped-up peacock ego sometimes exhibited by them at their apogee of stardom but the reality is that, popular culture musicians, that is indigenous African musicians and even Africanist musicians among them, are prophets of… Read full story
Do Black Lives Matter In Nigeria?
The sheer wickedness of his murder by the police turned George Floyd into a global figure as the world rose in one accord to condemn the inhuman treatment meted to him which resulted in his death. As soon as the video of Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis Police Department officer, kneeling on the neck of… Read full story
Buy and read digital replicas of your TRIBUNE titles by subscribing through E-VENDING
and then