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- FG may review Lagos-Ibadan Expressway concession
- Soyinka, Agbeyegbe ask court to void 1999 Constitution
- PDP’ll win Bayelsa, Sokoto, C/River - Jonathan •15,000 security personnel for Bayelsa poll tomorrow
- Salami knows fate as NJC meets Feb 29
- Senate backs post-UTME
- Scrapping of TASUED is unfortunate - Adebanjo
- Committee on police reorganisation meets IGP •Set to flush out bad eggs
- I was bribed to nail Al-Mustapha, says Katako
- Borno Speaker impeached
- Boko Haram: Security beefed up in Lagos
- Husbands petition IGP over wives’ postings
- S/Court ruling: Gov Lamido, others relocate to Abuja
- Ekiti assembly scraps office of minority leader
- Akerele mourns Aluko, Mbu, Dantata •As ex-Ekiti commissioner mourns Aluko
Fuel scarcity won’t end till March –TUC
Written by Adunola Fasuyi Sunday, 14 February 2010
NATIONAL President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr Peter Esele, has charged Nigerians to exercise patience, even as he expressed worries that the fuel scarcity being experienced nationwide might not end until March.
Long queues have characterised petrol stations in the past four months as transport fares continued to escalate by the day due to the scarcity.
Speaking in Lagos recently, Esele told journalists that petrol marketers were not importing fuel at the moment, and that the NNPC would not be able to provide enough fuel to meet the present demand.
“I am looking at March before the petroleum scarcity problem will be over because marketers are not importing and the NNPC cannot provide what will go round for now,” he said.
The labour leader, who enjoined Nigerians to exercise a little more patience, claimed that the marketers were not willing to import the product until they were certain of the Federal Government’s stand on the deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.
“Marketers are waiting for a final decision on the deregulation of the oil and gas sector; as you know, the petrol stations have already deregulated because they sell at different prices and no agency or any task force is arresting or prosecuting them for the illegality they are committing,” he said.
Esele reiterated that the TUC was not aversed to the deregulation policy but demanded that the enabling environment be put in place.
On the 52, 200 minimum wage demanded by public servants, he gave the assurance that labour leaders would not relent until it was achieved. “We met on January 26 and 27, and we are going to meet in another three weeks to compare the various reports; we will submit the reports to the National Assembly at the end of the meeting,” he said.
He said that a committee on the wage review would come up with a recommendation that could become a wage law. “We want to ensure, for example, that every five years, the wage will be reviewed without workers calling for it or causing crisis,” Esele stressed.
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