The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) says if the country has
functional refineries, the problems associated to payment of petrol subsidy
will be addressed.
NLC said this on Saturday in a statement issued in response
to a query by the presidential campaign council of the All Progressives
Congress (APC).
Earlier on Saturday, the APC presidential campaign council
asked the congress to state its position on the payment of petrol subsidy in
the wake of NLC’s support for the candidacy of Peter Obi of the Labour Party.
The NLC is among the groups that have declared support for
the presidential bid of Obi.
Last month, Obi had said part of his plans, if he becomes
president, would be to remove petrol subsidy.
The issue of payment of petrol subsidy has been hotly debate
in the public space in recent times due to its negative impact of on government
revenue.
Nigeria spent N2.04 trillion to offset subsidy payments in
seven months, even as it plans to spend about N6 trillion on subsidy by 2023.
Responding to the question in the statement, Ayuba Wabba,
NLC president, said it is “atrocious” for Nigeria to buy refined petrol abroad
at high cost when the country has crude oil as its natural resources.
“We believe that an issues-based campaign will help sieve
the facts from fiction, address burning national issues, review the performance
of those in government at all levels, especially on the delivery of the
sustainable development goals, improve Nigeria’s public accountability
frameworks, prepare voters behaviour on election day away from the destructive
lines of ethno-religious divide and defuse the looming political tension,”
Wabba said.
“Second, in furtherance of the avowed position of the
Nigeria Labour Congress on issues-based campaign in the run-up to the 2023
general election, we wish to state that Nigerian workers through a number of
painstaking processes have been able to articulate a Nigerian workers’ charter
of demands which the NLC and TUC are using it to engage the political process.
“A major demand in the Nigerian workers charter of demands
is that our local public refineries must work. We have also demanded that we
must stop 100 percent importation of refined petroleum products.
“The NLC and indeed the labour movement in Nigeria has over
many decades been vehemently consistent that the only way to address the issue
of the so-called petrol subsidies are to get our refineries to work.
“The logic is very simple: it is atrocious to buy from
abroad at very expensive prices a product that a country like ours can easily
produce at home.
“At the heart of our demand on the management of Nigeria’s
mineral resources especially our downstream petroleum sub-sector is the issue
of the production economy.
“We believe that the rescue of Nigeria from the current
ruinous path of consumption economy to production economy is the only way to
resolve Nigeria’s economic nightmares of massive depletion of scarce foreign
exchange reserve; continuous devaluation of the naira; significant jobs
haemorrhage and destruction, deepening of poverty and downturn in the living
standards of our people.”
Wabba further said the congress was determined to ensure the
adoption of workers’ charter demands into all political manifestos.
He said this aligns with NLC’s persuasion that issue-based
campaigns anchored on the manifesto of political parties should drive Nigeria’s
political process.
“If any political party goes around saying that they plan to
sell our refineries, remove subsidies, and further oppress long-suffering
Nigerians, they should be ready to defend such stance to Nigerians during the
campaigns,” he added.
“The NLC, organized labour, and Labour Party position has
not changed. It only got amplified”
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