The Ogun State chapter of Nigeria Labour Congres (NLC) has described the money being paid by the Federal Government to subsidise petroleum products as payment for incompetence and corruption from the political leaders, saying that it is regrettable that the government wants to shift the cost on the common people.
The Chairman of the Union in Ogun State, Mr.? Akeem Ambali,? said this while speaking with LEADERSHIP in his office yesterday on reasons why the labour was? opposed to the issue of subsidy removal
Ambali said:? “What is? the subsidy government is talking about, they said they are investing on the Nigerian people? The labour keeps saying that, as far as? we? are concerned, there is no subsidy, because the government is subsidising its own inefficiency. What on earth will make a major oil producing country to import over 80 per cent of its local requirements in terms of petroleum products, diesel, Kerosene?”
?“I can begin to? hear the new song that the removal will not affect kerosene, let no one be deceived, that is going to be? for a while, if you read correctly, the lips of Minister of Petroleum, she said for now. So, how long will that be sustained?”
Comparing the happenings in other nations that are non oil producing, the labour leader said many of the countries had built their own refineries.
“Look at Algeria, that do not produce one quarter of the oil we produce, they have moved along. No person in Algeria use Kerosene, they use gas, including their herdsmen for grassing their herds. They
have constructed a special type of gas cooker that , they carry along. So what market forces when you import everything?”
?“We have four refineries in Nigeria and none of them can operate at 20 per cent installed capacity, in spite of the huge sum of money expended on turn-around maintenance and we say why should that be? Shouldn’t we move first to make sure that these four refineries are producing at their optimum and move towards building new refineries”.
“If you go to places in the far East for instance, they don’t even produce one drop of oil, some of them have up to 15 refineries. If Nigeria has? 20 refineries, what is wrong? with that? We found out
that, if that happens, Nigerians will not pay more than N10? per litres of PMS and Nigeria has had? corrupted image of being the only OPEC nation, that ,if what they want to do succeeds, they will be
selling petroleum products, particularly PMS above one dollar Because if pump price should be sold for N165, that is higher than the official exchange rate of a dollar, Ambali emphasized that what the government called subsidy could not have happen at all “if government is up and doing, in its duties, we will not import and because we import, which subsidy they are talking about, what is the subsidy is the landing cost, the difference in landing cost in importing petroleum and the pump price.
He asked again, “Is it my fault that petroleum is imported? They take the raw materials from here, whereas, other countries have moved from selling their crude and selling refined products which brings about ten times value for you, that is why we have this. What is subsidy, they are not subsidising anybody”