The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had threatened to shutdown the economy without giving notice to the government, if the petrol pump price is increased.
However, President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, reacting to the threat, said; “There is no monopoly on the deep empathy that we feel as fellow Nigerians concerning the pain and economic hardship currently befalling Nigerian families across the country.”
“The labour union absolutely does represent the interests of Nigerian workers and our role as a government and particularly is to ensure that every government action was aimed at the most urgent and the most efficient amelioration of those difficult conditions facing our people.”
“With respect to energy cost and prices, let us be very clear that the deregulation of the market means that market conditions that are decided outside of the shores of any one country will determine the price of these commodities.”
“The notion that government is controlling or is leveraging in anyway the cost of these commodities in the country is a total misunderstanding of the market dynamics in the petroleum sector.”
“The President will continue to engage in effective and direct dialogue with the labour unions and he is committed to living up to every word and every letter of the agreement made so far and we expect that such agreements are not going to be tied to vagaries of international petroleum market that Nigeria does not have control over.”
“What those negotiations and conditions will be based on is to the extent in which government is living up to its side of the ongoing negotiations that it has entered into with the labour movement.”
“If the market forces decide the price, it’s Nigerians that are bearing the brunt, is there any way the government will intervene to cushion the effect so that the exchange rate will not be going up?”
“This is why the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been very forthright and open.”
“We have seen the President come out publicly several times, very communicative with Nigerians on what’s being done to crash the cost of energy, with respect to families and businesses across the country, which is why we have been very aggressive in detailing the actionable plans we put in place for CNG.”
“As we speak, between the NNPC and the NIPCO, there has been an agreement struck for the establishment of 56 new CNG filling stations nationwide, across all states of the federation in two phases to be running between now and April 1, 2024. And then phase two, from April 2024 to May 2025.”
“So, these have already been put in place. Aside from that, His Excellency, Mr. President, clearly enunciated that N100 billion has been set aside and has now as of this week, been paid out for the provision of over 3,000 CNG fuel buses because we are targeting commercial transportation, which is where the bulk of our masses are feeling the pinch, with respect to the cost of how they will get from home to business and from business to home on daily basis.”
“We believe that with CNG and depending on market conditions running from between N175 per litre and N250 per litre, against PMS’ N670 per litre to over N700 per litre, depending on where you are buying the commodity.”
“With that savings in the first phase, we can save the energy cost of millions of Nigerians that are relying on commercial transportation, businesses and systems across all states of the federation.”
“This is really the immediate solution, even if as we have our short to medium to long term plans on local production of electronic vehicles and solar power charging stations across the country .”
