*The Organised Labour says the Federal Government鈥檚 decision on proposed palliative is a 鈥榤onologue鈥�, demands domestic refining, just as the Senate discloses no N5,000 transport allowance payment for 40 million Nigerians in 2022 Federal Budget

*Imported petroleum products and gas would never be affordable to Nigerian consumers 鈹�Stakeholders

Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

Workers under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) have rejected the Federal Government鈥檚 proposed N5,000 for 40 million poor Nigerians when the subsidy on Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, is removed.

绿帽献妻 learnt Comrade Ayuba Wabba, President of NLC, who stated this development night on Wednesday, November 24, 2021, in Abuja, FCT, noted that there are no ongoing talks between the Labour and the Federal Government, as negotiation was adjourned sine die many months ago.

The NLC has accused government of adopting 鈥榤onologue鈥� in arriving at its conclusion on subsidy removal, as it restated that it would continually reject a deregulation that is anchored on importation of petroleum products in the country, report said.

The workers鈥� Union also said constant devaluation of the Naira would not guarantee a realistic pump price of petrol.

It said: 鈥淭his situation will definitely be compounded by the astronomical devaluation of the Naira, which currently goes for N560 to 1US$ in the parallel market.

鈥淭hus, any attempt to compare the price of petrol in Nigeria to other countries would be set on a faulty premise as it would be akin to comparing apples to mangoes.鈥�

According to Labour, the contemplation by the Nigerian Government to increase the price of petrol by more than 200 percent is a perfect recipe for an aggravated pile of hyper-inflation and astronomical increase in the price of goods and services.

This will open a wide door to unintended social consequences such as degeneration of the current insecurity crises and possibly citizens鈥� revolt, NLC stated.

Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Honourable Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning

The Congress described as 鈥榥onsensical鈥� the argument that the complete surrender of the price of petrol to market forces would normalise the curve of demand and supply as it is being wrongly attributed to the current market realities with cooking gas, diesel and kerosene is very obtuse, according to report.

NLC, therefore, warned that the bait by government to pay 40 million Nigerians N5,000 as palliative to cushion the effect of the astronomical increase in the price of petrol, is comical.

The Congress as well urged the government to establish empirical data on the quantity of refined petroleum products consumed daily by Nigerians.

No provision for payment of N5,000 as transport allowance to 40m Nigerians monthly 鈹�Senate

In a related development, the Nigerian Senate Wednesday said there was no provision for the payment of N5,000 to 40 million Nigerians monthly as transportation allowance in the proposed 2022 Federal Budget.

绿帽献妻 reports Senator Adeola Olamilekan Solomon, Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, disclosed this to reporters at the National Assembly (NASS), in Abuja.

National Assembly Complex, Abuja

The Federal legislator, however, 聽admitted the fact that there is a provision for subsidy in the budget submitted by the Executive.

Yet, Senator Adeola noted that the proposed expenditure, which will cost the government over N2.4 trillion, will require the nod of the Federal Legislature.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to go into details. If there is something like that, a document needs to come to the National Assembly, and how do they want to identify the beneficiaries?

鈥淔or us, we still believe the proposed subsidy grant is news because the budget we are considering contains just petrol subsidy and we can only speak on the document currently before us,鈥� Chairman of Senate Committee on Finance stated.

Federal Government’s position on post-fuel subsidy palliative for vulnerable Nigerians

Recall the Federal Government Wednesday restated that its transport subsidy payment of N5,000 to the vulnerable would be transferred digitally for a minimum period of six months and a maximum of 12 months.

But the government said that this development would happen after the removal of fuel subsidy by June 2022 to give Nigerian consumers time to adjust to the situation.

Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Honourable Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning, said this while briefing State House correspondents after the weekly 聽Federal Executive Council (FEC), meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Minister discosed that as of the last Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting in Abuja, it was noted that fuel subsidy costs Nigeria almost 聽N250billion monthly and N3 trillion yearly as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited remits near-zero Naira.

She stated this situation has made the removal expedient, and the expected support fund upon approval from FAAC for 20 to 40 million Nigerians would not be done in cash.

She further encouraged states in the Federation to financially contribute to the N5,000 relief fund to improve the productive abilities of Nigerians.

However, the Oranised Labour has vowed to oppose deregulation policy that is anchored on importation, Peter Esele, a former President of the Trade Union Congress, said.

Esele said imported petroleum products and gas would never be affordable to Nigerians who are mostly poor and live below two Dollars a day.

He stated: 鈥淭o the best of my knowledge, both NUPENG and PENGASSAN have never opposed subsidy removal. What the labour unions are opposed to is a deregulation policy that is anchored on importation.

鈥淚f previous administrations have been sincere, we have been on this subsidy removal since 1999 and no singular refinery has been able to work out of the three refineries we have. Why is that difficult to achieve?

鈥淭he situation is dicey right now. The government does not have the money to continue to fund subsidies, the people are too poor to afford PMS at the international price. That is the dilemma that is facing us as a country.鈥�

While there was no definite resolution after a series of meetings between 2020 and early 2021, both parties 鈥� organised labour and the Federal Government 鈥� said the status quo should be maintained even in the face of the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

Additional reporting by Gbenga Kayode.

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