TUC rejects purported removal of fuel subsidy

– The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria has condemned the removal of fuel subsidy

– The union also condemned the introduction of deregulations without any appropriate legal framework

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) Rivers state has condemned in its entirety and rejected the purported removal of fuel subsidy.

The union also condemned the introduction of deregulations without any appropriate legal framework and the fixing of outrageous cut-throat prices for petroleum products at a time when Nigerian are passing through excruciating economic hardship.

TUC said it is tempted to believe that by the underhanded manner the purported fuel subsidy was removed to believe that government deliberately created a huge supply gap and subjected Nigerians to months of buying petroleum products at outrageous prices so as to justify the removal of fuel subsidy as a solution to the current fuel price debacle.

READ ALSO: Fuel subsidy removal: Nigerians berate Buhari, extol Jonathan

The union drew the attention of government to the fact that there is no provision for Petroleum subsidy in the 2016 budget and sought to know the plan of government, and we were variously assured by government that there was no plan for deregulation or removal of fuel subsidy.

TUC in Rivers in a statement signed by Chika Onuegbu its chairman called on the National Secretariat of TUC Nigeria to convene an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Trade union Congress of Nigeria on this and other burning issues such as the continued disobedience of Court Order on the 45% hike in electricity tariff.

“We want to state very clearly that every country in the world has one form of subsidy or the other. So the issue is not about subsidy but how it is managed, the costs and benefits of the subsidy to the country.

“Moreover a good percentage of the figures being bandied around as cost of fuel subsidy is actually the cost of corruption in the fuel subsidy management process. The removal of subsidy is therefore more about transferring the burden of the payment for the corruption in the subsidy scheme from the government to the ordinary people!

” From 1973 to 2016 there have been at least 19 increases in petrol pump prices with about 7 of them within the period of this democracy. Government has curiously advanced the same argument each time – to use the money to provide “critical infrastructure”.

TUC, argued that since the previous partial removal of subsidies “we have witnessed an alarming decline of the state of our public infrastructure since then. There thus appears to be an inverse relationship between the removal of fuel subsidy and state of public infrastructure (or what government calls “critical infrastructure”) such that the more government removes subsidy the worse our “critical infrastructure” becomes.

The labour union therefore has a serious credibility deficit and any argument to increase the pain of the ordinary Nigerian by subsidy removal is bound to attract negative reaction from the populace.

READ ALSO: Why petrol subsidy removal is beneficial to Nigerians

TUC further said the legal framework for the deregulation of the petroleum industry is nowhere as the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) was not passed by the 6th and the 7th National Assemblies. It is important to note that  key objectives of the 2012 Petroleum industry Bill (PIB) was to “ deregulate and liberalise the downstream sector” (Section 1f).

According to the TUC, the non-passage of the PIB has cost the country some $80billion in lost investments. Even the 8th Senate on April 26th 2016 suspended debate on the new Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) as most senators kicked against its second reading on the grounds that copies of the bill.

The federal government of Nigeria on Wednesday, May 11, removed subsidy on fuel which would now be selling for at  N145 per litre.

Nigerians took to social media, raising their voices in anger against the new development. For many, it is a big slap on their faces while come claim that they have been ripped-off, for them, this was not the change they were promised.

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