President
of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria
(PENGASSAN), Comrade Francis Olabode Johnson yesterday denied that the
union and the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers
(NUPENG) have endorsed the N145 price of petrol.
He said what they are in support of is the deregulation of the downstream sector with a proviso that government must immediately engage all stakeholders in the nation’s economy to find a way forward.
He spoke with newsmen at the NLC secretariat in Abuja after a joint press conference by the NLC and TUC.
He said the unions are opposed to deregulation of the industry driven by import, pointing out that government must find a way of ensuring that the nation’s refineries work at optimal capacity, while the construction of new ones must be a priority.
Government, he added, must also have the political will to drive the process of deregulation just like it did in the telecom sector, pointing out that it is unfortunate that the Petroleum Industry Bill is yet to be passed into law.
“The government is saying that the ceiling should not be above N145 per litre. But it is also important that the process of how we are going to arrive at that should also be known to everybody,” he said.
“From the road map we issued to government in 2015, we said we are not averse to it, but what we are also saying is that the PIB has also embedded these things.
“We have not said that we are endorsing N145, what we are saying is that for us, for the challenge we are having in the industry which include pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft and others… for us in this country, until we are also stabilized, the main stay of the economy is oil and gas.
“What we said yesterday (Friday) was that we back deregulation, but stakeholders like NLC, TUC, NUPENG and PENGASSAN must be called to a meeting. We have not engaged NLC and TUC.
“NUPENG and PENGASSAN as unions in the oil and gas industry have given their position. But we are saying these unions must be engaged. Let us sit down and look at what we are doing
Citing the example of the telecommunication sector, he said that the then President Olusegun Obasanjo invited the regulators and “told them that within one year, SIM cards and recharge cards must be produced in Nigeria. MTN were producing in South Africa. But now, how much are we selling SIM cards?”
“The key thing we said is that a stakeholders meeting must be called urgently by government. We also said that the issue of minimum wage must also be given attention.”
But he warned that the factionalization of the NLC is not in the best interest of workers. He added,”For TUC and PENGASSAN, there is a seamless relationship, but for NLC/NUPENG, there must be a way of ensuring that the existing factionalisation is resolved otherwise, whatever we are planning here is not going to beneficial to Nigerians.
“For example, the issue of minimum wage, NLC is talking of N56,000 while the other faction is talking about N90,000. In the times we are now, we must make sure that labour is not divided.
He said what they are in support of is the deregulation of the downstream sector with a proviso that government must immediately engage all stakeholders in the nation’s economy to find a way forward.
He spoke with newsmen at the NLC secretariat in Abuja after a joint press conference by the NLC and TUC.
He said the unions are opposed to deregulation of the industry driven by import, pointing out that government must find a way of ensuring that the nation’s refineries work at optimal capacity, while the construction of new ones must be a priority.
Government, he added, must also have the political will to drive the process of deregulation just like it did in the telecom sector, pointing out that it is unfortunate that the Petroleum Industry Bill is yet to be passed into law.
“The government is saying that the ceiling should not be above N145 per litre. But it is also important that the process of how we are going to arrive at that should also be known to everybody,” he said.
“From the road map we issued to government in 2015, we said we are not averse to it, but what we are also saying is that the PIB has also embedded these things.
“We have not said that we are endorsing N145, what we are saying is that for us, for the challenge we are having in the industry which include pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft and others… for us in this country, until we are also stabilized, the main stay of the economy is oil and gas.
“What we said yesterday (Friday) was that we back deregulation, but stakeholders like NLC, TUC, NUPENG and PENGASSAN must be called to a meeting. We have not engaged NLC and TUC.
“NUPENG and PENGASSAN as unions in the oil and gas industry have given their position. But we are saying these unions must be engaged. Let us sit down and look at what we are doing
Citing the example of the telecommunication sector, he said that the then President Olusegun Obasanjo invited the regulators and “told them that within one year, SIM cards and recharge cards must be produced in Nigeria. MTN were producing in South Africa. But now, how much are we selling SIM cards?”
“The key thing we said is that a stakeholders meeting must be called urgently by government. We also said that the issue of minimum wage must also be given attention.”
But he warned that the factionalization of the NLC is not in the best interest of workers. He added,”For TUC and PENGASSAN, there is a seamless relationship, but for NLC/NUPENG, there must be a way of ensuring that the existing factionalisation is resolved otherwise, whatever we are planning here is not going to beneficial to Nigerians.
“For example, the issue of minimum wage, NLC is talking of N56,000 while the other faction is talking about N90,000. In the times we are now, we must make sure that labour is not divided.
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