Feeling pushed to the wall and terribly frustrated and over-burdened by what they consider the callous, insensitive and overbearing treatment they have been receiving from the hands of the officials of the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF}, petroleum products marketers in the 19 states of the northern region of the country came together in Kano a few days ago to compare notes and harmonise their position on the next step forward.
The stakeholders held their inaugural meeting at the Bristol Palace Hotel, Kano on Saturday, 17th April, 2o21 with a view to transforming themselves from simple, easy-going individual businessmen and women who mind their business into a potentially strong Forum that may become a formidable labour or professional force that could adopt strikes and picketing and other labour tactics in order to press home their rights and demands. The essence of the Kano meeting is to draw national attention to their plight in the hands of PEF.
The key outcome of the Kano meeting is that PEF, the national agency set up in 1975 to regulate their activities and to help smoothen their paths to distribute petroleum products at uniform price across the country, is not discharging its obligation towards them satisfactorily. They say PEF is trying so very hard in its many failings to push them to the limits of their human tolerance and that they are already been pushed to a level where they have no option but to fight back if they are to remain in business and contribute their quota to national development..
In its quest to become more militant, the body has already found a name for itself known as Northern Independent Petroleum Marketers Forum and are ready to approach the Corporate Affairs Commission to be fully registered as a body corporate in order to empower them to engage with PEF in a potentially confrontational manner.
Why are northern members of petroleum marketers the ones on the warpath against PEF? As indicated earlier, PEF was established primarily to ensure that there is a uniform price across the country for petroleum products; the agency is in place to bridge the price differentials arising from the lifting of petroleum products which are produced primarily in the south to feed north and other parts of the country.
At the meeting, members took turns to lament a series of ill-treatment they have been suffering from PEF. They range from short-payment of their bridging claims against PEF. They also lamented about the sometimes arbitrary, unfair and unjust imposition of fines on erring members who raise illegal pump price; long delays in payment of just claims; lethargy in official response to inquiries and official communication between PEF and their members, among many others.
At the end of the inaugural Kano meeting, the Forum issued a 5-point communique top of which was their demand that PEF should, without any further delay pay to all marketers in their region all claims running into billions of Naira. They also demand the immediate reconstitution of the Board of PEF. They observed that when the Board was in place with a member representing their interest in it, they were not having the kind of problems they now have with PEF which is now run as a sole administratorship, seemingly unsupervised by anyone in government.
The communique also demanded that attention be paid to the issue of ‘’persistent, illegal and unexplained deductions in their claims without raising any queries and despite PEF issuing acknowledgement letters to confirm the veracity of the claims’’. They also complained about what they described as ‘’acute delays in making payments, some spanning an average of six months, causing avoidable financial embarrassment to their members’’. As a result of this, they noted, many members have simply become insolvent.
An issue was also made of the ‘’inefficient and gross ineptitude of the PEF operational staff which goes against the much trumpeted benefits of a multi-billion Naira tracking device called AQUILLA 11which is meant to speed up their payment’’.
The Forum then called for the immediate payment of all outstanding claims; immediate overhaul of the AQUILLA 11 technology to make it more functional and to speed up payment not exceeding 48 hours as was originally designed and lastly, ‘’immediate implementation of the planned 26 per cent increase in the freight rate as agreed to mitigate rising truck maintenance costs and payment of the accumulated arrears’’. They now added the clincher, a threat Nigeria has become so much used to from the camp of labour unions and organisations: ‘’Failure to take immediate and drastic step on the issues raised in these resolutions within 21 working days will leave the members of the Forum no choice but to withdraw their services.
This threat is chilling because a strike by so strategic a body will lead the northern states with the fuel shortages of earlier forgotten times. Nigerian cannot at these times afford a strike in the oil sector which will lead to crippling economic spillovers.
Although the FG is not directly involved in this ‘dispute’ with the petroleum marketers, it should not fold its hands and wait for the inevitable to happen before it decides to call its agency PEF, which is directly involved to order.
In a country where officials who are put in place to see to the wellbeing of individuals and organisations in that particular sector that contribute their quota to nation building have surprisingly become inured to the complaints of such bodies, Nigerians should rise up and prevail on PEF not to push oil marketers to the wall. Already other allied workers in the petroleum industry such as Tanker Drivers Union and NARETO have decided to join forces with the newly formed Northern Petroleum Independent Marketers Forum in order to harmonise their positions on various issues and thereafter confront the FG, PEF and others.
Petroleum marketers play a critical role in the distribution of petroleum products. If there is any cause for them to withdraw their services for even a week, it will have devastating consequences not only on the economy of the North. It will also affect the entire country. That is why all men and women of goodwill should prevail on the PEF to listen to the genuine complaints of members of NPIMF and act accordingly to stave off any disharmony. Their call for prompt attention to be given to the payment of their genuine and verified claims for instance is not unreasonable. Since they are in business, their claims must be promptly addressed as many of them take bank loans at high interest charges to remain in business.
A cavalier attitude to treating their claims must be done away with unless PEF officials want to run them out of business and sabotage the economy to the bargain. Everyone, including Government and its agencies and departments, have a responsibility to ensure industrial peace and harmony as valiant efforts are being made to keep the economy afloat.
It is quite ominous that the tankers union have indicated interest to want join forces with the newly formed body in order to lend weight to their demands. This move will not do the image of PEF any good. More importantly, this is not good news for the petroleum industry. We are likely to go back to the era of crippling fuel crisis of the eighties and nineties.
