Fakoyejo OlalekanThe plan of the Federal Government to remove subsidy on fuel might suffer a setback as the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) revealed they won’t be supporting the move.
NUPENG said FG hasn’t met the condition set by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), which is to ensure there’s a functioning refinery in the country before the removal of the subsidy.
The group stated that the government had said before removing the subsidy, there will be three working refineries, but that has not been done. Should the government go ahead to remove subsidy without refineries, the cost of fuel will skyrocket.
This was revealed on Thursday in a statement signed by NUPENG’s President, Prince Williams Akporeha and the General Secretary, Afolabi Olawale.
Their decision not to back the removal of the subsidy comes two months before the removal date. President Muhammadu Buhari’s government stated that it will stop paying subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) before the end of June.
Also, the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, promised during his campaign that his administration will remove subsidy should President Buhari fail to do so.
He said protests from Nigerians won’t stop him from removing the fuel subsidy, as the country is not benefiting from it, instead, neighbouring countries like Cameroon, Niger and Benin Republic are profiting from it.
However, with NUPENG throwing its weight behind NLC ahead of the June date to remove the subsidy, the plan of Buhari and Tinubu faces a roadblock.
In the statement, NUPENG said: “NEC-in-Council also examined the recurrent discussions for the removal of subsidy from the Petroleum Motor Spirit, PMS, and expresses deep concerns over the failure of the Federal Government to do the needful as advised by Organised Labour that deregulation of the PMS should not be predicated on importation of the product because of all the obvious negative impacts on the socio-economic life of the people and nation in general.
“The Council-in-session expressed disappointment in the failure of the government to deliver on its promises of making the three national refineries work before contemplating the removal of the subsidy on this very important economic item in view of the enormous implication and the impact on the economic activities and considering the socio-economic importance of PMS to ordinary Nigerians.
“The NEC-in-session reaffirms that in as much as our Union is not averse to the removal of PMS subsidy, the Federal Government must ensure that our local refineries are put into full operation before a such major policy decision is taken in the interest of the generality of Nigerians.”
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