New talks between the federal Government and labour unions on the deregulation of fuel prices and the downstream fuel industry have broken up, sending a national strike against the measure into a second week. The Government had hoped to avert a shutdown of oil production threatened by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), but both political and trade union leaders confirmed that three hours of talks had failed to reach a compromise.
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Abdulwaheed Omar (pictured) confirmed the situation for reporters. "the status quo remains. We are going to continue our deliberation at our organisation level and then maybe we will see the way forward.We are going to meet with our organs,then we’ll inform Nigerians,” he added. Both the NLC and peer organisation the TUC have said that the only acceptable solution to the deadlock will be a return to fuel prices of N65 per litre.
Separately, Minister for Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke spoke to national media, insisting that the removal of fuel subsidies will curb widely-reported corruption in the downstream sector, allow better investment in social infrastructure, and prevent smuggling.“It is not possible to have petrol at N65 per litre at the pump in Nigeria, in Chad as much as N200, in Ghana at N175 and in Niger at N190," she insisted. "It is simple economics especially when you consider the nature of our international borders. So, in the last 16 months, while we have fought so hard to keep the country wet with petroleum products despite some level of disparity in prices, some people have taken the products to other neighbouring countries where they can sell it for as much as three times the price in Nigeria," observed Alison-Madueke.
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