The Kwara State Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has implored the Nigerian Government to fix the nation’s moribund refineries in a bid to cause reduction in the price of fuel otherwise known as Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
According to the congress, the current hike in the petrol price is taking its tolls on the masses.
In a statement issued in Ilorin, the Chairman, Kwara State council of NLC, Comrade Muritala Olayinka, observed that the attendant rise in the cost of goods and services following removal of subsidy on fuel, has made it necessary for government to review it’s decision.
Olayinka explained that the functionality of the nation’s ailing refineries would ultimately assuage the burden of financing the socio-economic needs of Nigerians.
The NLC boss also expressed concern over the decision of the Nigerian Government to confer the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited with the unilateral power to upwardly review fuel price at will.
“The recent sudden hike in the pump price if Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) came as a rude shock having experienced one in the month of May, 2023. The unilateral increase in the petroleum pump price by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited is viewed as an overbearing policy of the present government as it denied stakeholders’ participation in the affairs of their country.
“In other words, the principle of tripartite engagement has been undermined by the government”, Olayinka said.
The NLC boss admonished Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq to prioritize palliatives for citizens and also engage the organized labour in a dialogue to comprehensively devise roadmap towards achieving a sustainable relief packages for workers and the general public in the state.
He said, “It is important to note that there was a meeting called by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State, which discussed the removal of fuel subsidy. In that meeting, the Governor unequivocally pledged to offer palliative to the workers and masses in the State to mitigate the hardship that came with the subsidy removal”.
He explained further that in as much as congress applaud the remedial step taken by the Governor, it further called on him, to subsequently march the pledge with action in order to gain public confidence.
“It is obvious that, given the recent sharp hike in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), the people of Kwara State and Nigerians in general have been confronted with hunger and other social problems, which require urgent intervention of the government”.
A litre of fuel was dispensed at N595 in different parts of Kwara State as a continuous fallout of the total withdrawal of subsidy on PMS.
Most citizens have now resulted to either trekking long distances if it’s very important or had abandoned their already planned schedules due to the exorbitant cost of taking commercial vehicles or motorcycles known as Okada.
Mechanics and other artisans have also complained bitterly that their sales had dropped as most motorists and their other customers have abandoned their vehicles at home and therefore passionately appealed the government to do something urgently about the issue so as not to increase the wave of crime in the country.
Olusola Akintonde
