NLC Threatens Strike Action Over Fuel Scarcity


Organised labour on Friday threatened to embark on strike if the ongoing fuel shortage ravaging the nation extends to next year.

A press statement issued on Friday said it also hailed the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, for directing the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to cut short its recess and immediately convene industry stakeholders meeting in a bid to end the ongoing fuel crisis.

A NEC member of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Issa Aremu, observed in Kaduna on Thursday that the protracted fuel crisis was a reflection of “crisis of corporate governance in the petroleum sector.”

According to the labour leader, the bane of downstream sector was “abysmal absence of accountability, transparency and openness in the administration of the petroleum resources of Nigeria.”

He said only the parliament can make a difference in “exposing the rot” in the sector.

Mr. Aremu said the Senate leadership by urging relevant committee members to resume duty has shown that the legislature is truly “a vent for public grievances, a “useful organ of public opinion” adding that legislators cannot be in recess when those who elected them are groaning in filling stations.

The labour leader urged the legislators to demand for “consequences for the actions and inactions of petroleum sector operators in the product shortage scam”.

“There is a deep-seated conflict of interest in the downstream sector; regulators are operators, regulators are importers, importers are products hoarders, regulators are also saboteurs, definitely we have a sector capture in our hands, Nigeria and Nigerians need liberation,” he remarked.

The labour leader who disclosed that “NNPC is the only public corporation that annually awards its directors long service incentives for no service at all, for non-functioning refineries” called for a “total ban on importation to reinvent domestic refineries and beneficiation to crude oil”.

Mr. Aremu however said if the intervention of the legislature fails to put an end to product shortages, labour may compel all Nigerians to return to street protests like in the past “to force the ruling elite to face up to the challenges of governance of the most populous promising but badly governed country in the continent.”

“The one-month long fuel shortage has further worsened poverty, put productivity on hold. We dare not enter 2018, new year with this recurring old mess,” he noted.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Kabiru Marafa, had disclosed that following the directive of the Senate President, the committee has summoned the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru and other relevant stakeholders in the petroleum sector to a crucial meeting on Thursday January 4, 2018.

While Nigerians await the outcome of the proposed meeting, it is evident that they may have to wait till 2018 before experiencing any possible reprieve as queues at the filling stations continue to get longer.

Source: Premiumtimes

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Billionaire Akanimo Udofia Responsible For Oil Man Igho Sanomi's Crashed Marriage

Image
How The Erstwhile Brothers-in-Law Became Enemies Over Infidelity-based Allegations The marriage between billionaire oil magnate and philanthropist, Igho Charles Sanomi, and his wife, Eghonghon, has crashed. Eghonghon has moved out of her matrimonial home with the four children from the union, and has even filed for a divorce. Predictably, Sanomi, whose world revolves around his family, is distraught and devastated by this downward turn of event. Never would he, or even, Eghonghon, have thought that the love they had been nurturing from their college days, would come to such an abrupt end. Sources disclosed to The ELITES that the marriage between Sanomi and Eghonghon crashed as a result of myriad of problems, which was completely beyond the couple’s control. Somehow, the news of their crashed marriage was only known to just the couple’s families and close friends. Tragically too, the blame for the Sanomis’ crashed union, is being leveled on Akanimo Udofia, the billionaire busi
Read more

Single Mother Temitope Adesegun Is Ooni Ogunwusi's Soon-To-Be Wife

Image
Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi has chosen his main heartthrob. And she is identified as “Tope Adesegun”. “The full name is actually Temitope Adesegun” a source disclosed. Light skinned and label a “beauty to behold”, the latest sweetheart of the leading monarch is said to have a two-year-old daughter. Details of the circumstances of the former life that transformed Tope into a single mother are sketchy. “But whatever she went through, it is obvious what she has going with the Ooni is far better” a source disclosed. Societynow.ng gathered that Tope pushes above heavy interests from quite a tidy number of other women to assume current status with the Ooni. Twice divorced – one before he became the Ooni – Oba Ogunwusi is “single” and has transformed the subject of intense wooing from women and family of all shades of colours. Source: Societynow
Read more

Oba Elegushi's New Wife, Hadiza Won't Live Under Same Roof With Olori Aramide

Image
Hadiza, the new wife of Oba Saheed Ademola Elegushi would be living apart from first wife Olori Sekinat Aramide – for now. Sources confirmed that based on existing arrangement new wife Hadiza would be primarily based in Abuja with periodic visits to Lagos state. Young king Elegushi popularly known as King Gushi is the Elegushi of Ikate Land, which is one of the pieces of Lagos state. Sources disclosed that the reasons behind the strategy of King Gushi’s new wife, Hadiza opting to live apart from the first wife Seki are two folds. ‘’To protect her business and maintain the peace while the anger of the first wife cools off’’ societynow.ng learned. Olori Sekinat is said to have kicked very against Oba Elegushi’s marriage to Hadiza, the new Olori when she was informed. Sources disclosed Oba Elegushi had stayed well ahead of the consequence of his first wife’s anger -and strong opposition – by informing her of the plan to take a second wife when she could do little or nothing to st
Read more