The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers says there is no going back on its opposition to the Federal Government’s proposed removal of fuel subsidy come January 2012. NUPENG said it would continue to oppose the move until the government was able to...
convince the majority of Nigerians that its removal was necessary. President of the union, Comrade Igwe Achese, said on Sunday that though a few Nigerians were benefiting from the fuel subsidy, it was not enough to stop it.
Comrade Achese observed that there were more pressing issues affecting the country that the government should address than thinking of removing fuel subsidy.
Achese said, “Our position on fuel subsidy removal has never changed. NUPENG has always said no to subsidy removal. If government must remove subsidy, they must tell us why. But they have not been able to convince us and Nigerians on why the subsidy must be removed.
“We quite agree that few Nigerians are benefitting from the subsidy. I think that has to do with government policy. That has to do with government in power and the way they want to manage the issue. I just read in the newspapers that a construction company is being paid subsidy. I don’t understand why.
“There are more issues than the removal of subsidy. If government wants to create industries for the development of our communities and states, they must ask what happened to our own oil bill, they must ask questions on what happened to our joint venture organisations.”
According to him, Nigerians pay more on every litre of fuel they purchase. “I don’t know if you are aware that for a litre of petrol you buy from a service station, you pay subsidy for it. Every litre of fuel you consume as a consumer, which you put in your car, you pay N2.50 as a subsidy and this is unknown to you.”
No comments:
Post a Comment