The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has called for a rollback of petrol prices to the levels they were at in June 2023.
“We want the price of the product to go below what it was before; not just reverse to what it was before but to go below,” said TUC President, Festus Osifo, at a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday.
He asked the government to specially intervene in the sector by giving foreign exchange to Dangote Refinery at $1/N1,000 and not at the current $over 1/N1,600 exchange rate to crash petrol prices
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“The solution we are proposing if implemented will take us to the price we had as of June last year,” Osifo stated, stressing that “there is no government in the world that doesn’t intervene in its critical sector” and that the Federal Government “shouldn’t leave it (the oil sector) to the vagaries and gyration of our naira”.
Since May 2023, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has raised petrol pump prices from ₦184 per litre in Lagos to ₦998. By June 2023, the price per litre in Lagos had risen to around ₦450.
On Thursday, the TUC leader emphasized the importance of petrol being available, affordable, and accessible to all Nigerians, noting that the commodity is essential for every household, even for those without vehicles.
The trade union placed its demands along the lines of affordability, availability and accessibility, saying, “We want the Federal Government to, through Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), give all marketers licenses to lift petrol from the Dangote Refinery.”
Osifo urged the NNPCL to explore sourcing refined petrol from alternative suppliers if the Dangote Refinery is unable to meet the current daily demands of Nigerians.
“If it is not available, it is a problem. If, for example, the production from Dangote Refinery is less than 15 million litres per day, it is not sufficient.
“So, while efforts are being made to ramp up production from Dangote Refinery, what we are demanding is that we should look for every other means as we are ramping up production, we should source for that difference and bring it in for a while until Dangote can get to that level where the production is sufficient to get to all nooks and crannies of Nigeria. For us, that is key because it will address the issue of availability,” the TUC boss stated.
NLC Reacts As Fuel Price Hits N1,030 Per Litre
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has condemned the recent increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, across the country.
In a statement signed by its president, Joe Ajaero, on Wednesday, the NLC demanded an immediate reversal of the price hike and criticized the government’s focus on raising fuel prices.
Ajaero also called on the government to clarify its plans for the future of the nation, while expressing disappointment with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) for its role in the price increase.
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“Even following the logic of market forces, we find it an aberration that a private company (NNPCL) is the one fixing prices and projecting itself as a hegemonic monopoly. We challenge the government to go to the drawing board and present us with a blueprint for inclusive economic growth and national development instead of this spasmodic ad hocism and palliative policy.
“It needs no stating the fact that the latest wave of increase has grossly altered the calculations of Nigerians once again at a time they were reluctantly coming to terms with their new realities. It will further deepen poverty as production capacities dip and more jobs are lost with multidimensional negative effects.
“In light of this, we urge the government to immediately reverse this rate hike as previous increases did not produce any good results. People only got poorer. But more fundamentally, the government should be bold enough to tell Nigerians in advance the destination it wants to take the country.”
Earlier, several NNPC stations in Abuja increased the retail price of petrol from N897 to N1,030 per litre.
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