Marketers of the premium motor spirit (PMS) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited on Tuesday jerked up the price by about 25 per cent to N617 per litre without notice, throwing millions of Nigerians into panic.
This is coming in less than 24 hours after the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released data about the June inflation, which rose to its highest in close to two decades.
This increase came twice in less than two months after President Bola Tinubu, in his ‘subsidy is gone meme’, removed the age-long social scheme and declared the downstream sector deregulated
Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress who is threatening to pull out of the negotiation for palliative as a result of the PMS removal and many other citizens berated the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal administration for by allowing the continued hike in the price of petrol which has led to hardship on citizens and deliberately frustrating the work of the committee by not inaugurating it to begin work
NLC President, Joe Ajaero, who stated this in Abuja, yesterday, berated the Federal Government for deliberately frustrating the work of the committee by not inaugurating it to begin work.
Also, an Assistant General Secretary of Congress, Chris Onyeka, has described the hike of petrol price from N537 to N617 as one of the evils of the removal of the subsidy.
He said: “This is one of the evils of the so-called removal of fuel subsidy. Now, the price is determined by market forces that do not have human faces. Nigerians are now left to face the high cost of energy.”
Ajaero said the organised labour movement will be forced to review its stand on the removal of petrol subsidies.
He added: “As a result, if the government does not want to stop these fortuitous actions that it is pursuing in the name of palliatives, we will be forced to constructively review our engagement with the government on this vexatious issue and take matters in our own hands.”
The NCL President added that the union would not want to continue to be a part of the usual charade of committees with outcomes that are never implemented.
“We would not want to waste the time of Nigerians especially workers on Committees that have already been programmed to fail thus ignored. We do not want to provide a cover for the government to get away with the hardship it has imposed on the people. We do not want to legitimize impunity,” he stressed.
He revealed that despite having shown its readiness to commence work in the committees, the Federal Government, which convenes the meetings, is yet to inaugurate the National Steering Committee thus stalling the work of the proposed committees.
Ajaero insisted that if the government had wanted an expedited action which Nigerians want more, the best approach would have been to quickly inaugurate the committees and allow the committees do their work, saying up to this moment, nothing has been done except the continuation of the borrowing and subsequent allocation to those in government.
NLC said it is at sea as to why the Federal Government would seek to embark on the distribution of money before the conclusion of the work of the yet-to-be-inaugurated committees.
On the distribution of $800 million to 12 million poor households, NLC expressed doubt over the credibility of the data used to determine the poorest of the poor.
It said: “We reiterate that we do not have confidence in how the data for the never changing 12 million poorest households was generated nor do we have confidence in the mechanisms being pursued for the distribution of the cash transfers.
The history of such transfers especially the school feeding programmes even while the children were at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Trader Moni saga fills Nigerians with trepidation reminding us of the continued heist of our collective resources by those in Public office.
We have continually demanded that this register be made public but, it seems to have become an instrument of the occult shrouded in mystery and wielded by the grandmasters whenever opportunities like this present themselves.”
The Trade Union Congress also blasted the Federal Government over the hike in the price of fuel.
TUC’s Natioal Vice President, Tommy Etim, said the country was now headed towards economic chaos.
He said, “We are entering one chance. It is unfortunate that the government is insensitive to the plight of the commoners and the poorest of the poor. You can see that fuel which is essential to the movement of goods and services, including the informal businesses, have continued to fluctuate in price.
“We have not concluded that, no template yet for implementation of proposals to be raised; but all that we are seeing is Tinubu going to the National Assembly, talking about distribution of N8,000 to 12 million households. What is the credibility of the social register? Nigeria is undergoing dimensional poverty and with the inflation rate, we are praying that we will not be like Zimbabwe. Look at the naira, this calls for urgent attention.”
He said the wages of workers had remained static, adding that “when Tinubu came in we were optimistic and we felt that he started well but he has started to deviate. He needs to remember the poorest of the poor who voted him into office.
“Look at the prices of food. Garri is now a luxury. People can’t afford garri again. Government has refused to think outside the box. At this point, we are seriously doubting if the proposal of the committee will be implemented.”
Although the NNPCL and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, both Federal Government entities, explained that market forces caused the hike in petrol price, since the commodity had been fully deregulated, Nigerians expressed frustrations over the continued sharp increase in the cost of the product.
It was observed that petrol price was raised from N537/litre to N617/litre at some filling stations operated by the NNPCL in Abuja on Tuesday.
Independent oil marketers confirmed the increase in the cost of the commodity, as they stated that any shift in price by NNPCL stations was an indication of a rise in the pump price of PMS.
“This is because NNPCL is still the major importer of petrol into Nigeria currently, though other marketers are gradually importing the commodity. The price this (Tuesday) morning at some NNPCL stations is N617/litre,” the Secretary, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abuja-Suleja, Mohammed Shuaibu, told one of our correspondents.
Tinubu had during his inaugural address on May 29, announced that subsidy on petrol had ended, a development that led to the jump in the price of the commodity from N198/litre to over N500/litre on May 30, 2023.
Since the withdrawal of subsidy on petrol and the floating of the naira against the dollar, marketers had continued to explain that the cost of PMS could rise to as high as N700/litre.
Similarly, the rise in the cost of crude oil in the international market has also triggered further hike in petrol price, as crude is the product from which PMS and other refined petroleum products are produced.
In Abuja, on Tuesday morning, motorists besieged filling stations that were still dispensing at N540/litre, but as the news of the hike in price by NNPCL stations filtered in, many independent outlets shut their stations.
Others immediately commenced the adjustment of their pumps to reflect the new price.
