Federal Government set for a showdown with Nigeria Labour Congress over removal of fuel subsidy

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has accused the Federal Government of removing subsidy through the back door without letting Nigerians know about the process.
A statement by the General Secretary of NLC, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, declared the union would mobilise to resist the move.
“The chieftains of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), who supported and encouraged the massive protests against subsidy removal in 2012 are now preaching the inevitability of subsidy removal.
“The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, first announced that come next year, the price of petrol would revert to N97 per litre and that subsidy would be phased out. Two days after, he denied this and stated that what he said was that the price would operate within a band of N87 to N97 and that this did not mean removing the subsidy. The same minister now says that the price of petrol will now be N85 in January signifying the deregulation of the sector.
“These vacillations and flip flops are, in our view, designed to confuse Nigerians and pave the way for deregulation of petrol prices through the back door,” the union alleged. It urged the Federal Government to promote domestic refining before thinking of subsidy removal.
“But the fact of the matter is that as long as we continue to depend on imported refined products, deregulation and the abandonment of a subsidy scheme will unleash hardship on Nigerians. In any case, according to our laws, the determination of the recommended prices of petroleum products is the responsibility of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
“By law, the board of PPPRA is made up of stakeholders. None of the contradictory prices the minister is throwing up is a product of the agency. The board of the PPPRA has not operated for over two years, although we have made repeated demands for the convening of the board,” it stated.
The union called on the government to be guided by the rule of law and constitute and convene the board of PPPRA in accordance with the law without further delay.
This will, according to it, enable the agency to examine and agree on a new pricing template based on the realities of today. Any price unilaterally determined and announced by the Minister is in violation of the law.
“In the meantime, we wish to restate our opposition adopted at our Central Working Committee Emergency Meeting of December 22, 2015 to the effect that any attempt by the government to increase the price of or remove subsidy on petrol would be resisted. We reiterate our directive to our state councils and industrial unions to commence the process of mobilisation prior to a meeting of the National Executive Committee to be convened in the New Year,” it stated.