Labour laments Nigeria’s harsh economic condition, says fuel scarcity unacceptable

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC on Wednesday lamented that Nigeria and its people were facing serious economic decline.

The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, who spoke at the opening of the body’s Central Working Committee meeting in Abuja, said workers were worse hit, as they have once again been sacrificed for the failings of the political elites.

Mr. Wabba noted measures by President Muhammadu Buhari to rebuild the economy to include renewing and strengthening of relations with nations, signing of bilateral or trilateral agreements, creation of safe haven for investment, fighting corruption, restoration of internal security, tracking and recovering looted funds and resisting pressures to further devalue the Naira.

He however, lamented that in spite of all these efforts not much have been achieved, as the Naira continued to fall against major currencies, while inflation continued to rise, amid mounting commodity prices.

“The productive sector continues to shrink with more loss of jobs. Very few employers are paying salaries as when due,” he said, stressing the need let the people know how serious the situation has become.

The NLC President called attention to two key issues he said had been sources of serious headaches for workers, namely perennial fuel scarcity and poor electricity supply.

He said workers would not accept the continuous spells of petroleum products scarcity in the country, as the human and economic costs on them had become unimaginable.

Mr. Wabba said government should realize that any scarcity of the products generate crippling effects on the economy and the people.

“Because of the place of petroleum products in the lives of the citizenry, we dare say one of the fastest ways for government to lose its credibility before the ordinary citizenry is scarcity of petroleum products,” Mr. Wabba noted.

He condemned the recent 45 per cent increase in electricity tariffs by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, describing it as illegal, unfair, unjustifiable and a further exploitation of the already exploited Nigerians.

“When the effects of petroleum products scarcity were combined with low electricity supply, it could create misery for the people as it could negatively impact travel, jobs, productivity and the economy as a whole,” he said.

The labour leader blamed the perennial fuel scarcity on corruption in the system, the activities of a cabal defying structural changes at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), national and international politics around fuel production, sale and consumption of oil, sabotage of the refineries, turnaround maintenance (TAM) contracts award and smuggling.

Lamenting the abuses of the monitoring and regulatory functions of the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, the NLC said the statutory roles of these agencies should be restored to enable them function independently.

The NLC president urged government to review pending cases of subsidy scams inherited from the previous administration, saying Nigerians were keen to know what had become of the alleged criminality by highly placed persons.