The leadership of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers also described the importation of fuel from Ghana and Niger Republic as shameful.
President of NUPENG, Mr. Igwe Achese, and his PENGASSAN’s colleague, Mr. Babatunde Ogun, said these on Saturday in Calabar, Cross River State, at the end of a four-day workshop for oil workers on Petroleum Industry Bill.
President Goodluck Jonathan had on Thursday launched a fresh campaign to totally remove the subsidy on fuel.
Jonathan had while receiving the report of the participants of the Senior Executive Course 34, 2012, of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, near Jos, in Abuja, said, “Why is it that people are not building refineries in Nigeria despite that it is a big business?
“It is because of the policy of subsidy, and that is why we want to get out of it.”
However the NUPENG president noted that while the unions were not against the withdrawal of subsidy, relying almost completely on importation of petrol products would continue to impoverish Nigerians.
According to Achese, the four refineries function at 20 per cent capacity, an indication that the country would continue to rely on importation of the product at higher costs and to the detriment of the citizens.
He said, “Like we keep saying, removal of subsidy or deregulating of the sector without making sure the nation’s refineries are working optimally would still drive this country back into importation of petroleum products.
“We keep saying that importation of products should be a stop gap. There is nowhere in the world that importation doesn’t take place.
“But today in Nigeria, the reverse is the case. Our refineries are all moribund; they are incapacitated. The few refineries that are running today cannot run even more than 20 per cent. That means this nation would continue to import petroleum products and every importation of petroleum product must be sold at a high rate.”
Achese said it was shameful that as the sixth largest producer of crude oil, Nigeria was relying heavily on importation of petrol from countries like Ghana and Niger that had just discovered oil.
Ogun said, “Government came up with Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme and I would ask that it is about one year today. What has it achieved in this nation?
“It is about one year when we went down the street protesting against the removal of subsidy and increase in petroleum prices and government came with that programme, saying it is going to take care of Nigerians and I ask: is anything working today? What has worked? Are we set to deregulate? Are we set to remove subsidy? The answer is no.”
The PENGASSAN boss also lamented that a task force set up on refineries, for which the unions were members, had submitted its report without their input.
He said, “We have heard that the task force on refinery which we as a union are also members, has unfortunately gone to submit a report that was not properly reviewed by all members of the committee and here we are hearing that various recommendations were made.”
Meanwhile, a civil rights group, Anti-Corruption Network, has called on the Federal Government to rescind its decision to remove fuel subsidy, saying the group will “shut down Nigeria” using all legal means including civil disobedience if the government goes ahead with the plan.
However, the Executive Director of ACN and a former member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dino Melaye, who issued the threat in an interview with journalists on Saturday in Abuja, said the group would prove to the government that Nigerians were no fools.
He said, “The plan for total removal of petroleum subsidy is an invitation to anarchy. I dare the Federal Government to remove total subsidy. Any attempt to effect total removal of subsidy, we also promise them total Gbege and articulate wahala.
“We will shut down Nigeria and we do not need the organised labour movement such as the NLC and TUC to do this. We are very ready and prepared for them. Enough of all these draconian and anti-people policies which are not in tandem with modern democratic governance.”
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