The Federal Government has wasted over $9.5 billion on refineries, key labour unions in Nigeria have said.
Officials of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), among others, spoke at the Annual General Meeting and inauguration of the newly elected National Executive Committee of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria in Abuja.
TUC National President, Quadri Olaleye, said the energy crisis in Nigeria was “solely due to the incompetence and corruption of the government.”
He said, “The fuel subsidy and the proposed hike in fuel price is a rather prominent and recurring one. Nigeria is the only OPEC member country that imports more than 90 to 95 percent of refined petroleum products for consumption.
“Nigeria has a total of five refineries across the country of which four are owned and managed by the government, and one by NDPR (Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Limited).
“It might interest you to know that none of the government-owned refineries is functioning, yet in the past 10 years alone, the government has wasted about $9.5bn for turnaround maintenance of the moribund refineries.”
Olaleye noted that the TUC was not against the removal of the fuel subsidy if it would yield positive results.
“Rather, we are inquisitive as to what the government has to offer following the removal,” he stated.
The TUC demanded that if the subsidy was eventually removed, the government should engage more on expenditures that were beneficial to the economy rather than projects that generate losses.
“There should be the establishment of modular refineries and construction of functioning refineries in the country,” Olaleye said.
The National President, IPMAN, Debo Ahmed, gave credence to the position of the TUC.
He said, “We are in support of subsidy removal but there are some conditions that we have that should be met, such as the availability of products, proximity of supply, and other related issues.
“What we would love to see is that the government makes sure that most of these moribund refineries are on the ground and functioning.
“If most of these refineries are working, it will be easy for the implementation of subsidy removal, because products will not be subjected to foreign exchange.”
