End fuel scarcity now, NLC tells Buhari

… impact of product shortage on workers could lead to strike, it warns

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Wednesday came down hard on President Muhammadu Buhari over the continued shortage of petroleum prod- ucts in the country, saying it was high time the president took decisive steps to restore normal supply.

Kiri Mohammed, acting president, NLC, in a state- ment, said the impact of the protracted fuel shortage had become unbearable to work- ers and the Nigerian masses, given that transport fares had gone up with consequential effect on many other ser- vices, including food prices.

“It has become extremely difficult for workers to get to work because of the perpetual scarcity of petroleum prod- ucts, which has burdened their salaries as they now have to pay exorbitant transport fares to commute to work, even as majority of them have not received salaries in months.

This has become worse as means of public transportation are now scarce due to unavailability of fuel, and this might cause workers to stop resuming at work,” Mohammed said.

Although the government is new in office, the period between the swearing in and now is enough to take full control of the situation and declare an emergency that will ensure the pumps at all fuel stations across the country are selling effectively, and at the official price of N87 per litre, the congress said.

“Government must not allow itself to be blackmailed, not even by petroleum market- ers, to abandon the delivery of goods and services that help our economy out of prevailing doldrums. The unavailabil- ity of petroleum products and lack of electricity are some of the reasons our economy is down, and any serious govern- ment must direct serious at- tention to these,” the NLC said.

The NLC, however, praised the government for taking firm steps at confront- ing the prevalent terror attacks in some parts of the country, but urged the president “to also see the scarcity of petro- leum products as yet another major challenge that must not be treated with kids gloves.”

The congress called on the government to also deal deci- sively with the issue of corrup- tion in the oil and gas sector, rather than allowed petroleum marketers to arm twist it, say- ing “it is apparent that the pe- troleum industry is enmeshed in corruption, totally seized by a cabal of criminals who have been beneficiaries of a loose system.

But government can’t abdicate its responsibilities on mere grounds of a tiny few using the ineffectiveness and sleaze of the system to deny the Nigerian people quality and productive life.”

JOSHUA BASSEY