The President Bola Tinubu-led government has been asked to take immediate action to end the suffering caused by the high price of fuel and resurfaced long queues in filling stations across the country to avoid industrial unrest.
The National President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Comrade Tommy Etim Okon, in an interaction with Nigerian Tribune at the weekend, said it is disappointing and unfortunate that the government allows Nigerians go through another round of hardship and suffering caused by fuel scarcity even after subsidy was removed from petroleum product.
He said it is dangerous that Nigerians are being stretched beyond limit, while noting that situations like this can instigate the citizens to rise against the government if action is not taken to douse the tension.
Okon called on the government to dismantle the cabals that hold the oil sector to ransom as part of immediate action to save Nigeria.
The ASCSN president, who doubles as the Deputy President, Trade Union Congress (TUC) faulted the government for removing fuel subsidy completely without putting measures in place to cushion the consequences.
Okon said, “If the government had involved us the stakeholders in the fuel subsidy removal process, we wouldn’t have agreed to a total removal; it would have been a gradual process. The situation is terrible and Nigerians are suffering the most. Therefore, we are blaming the government and we are looking at NNPC. A lot of Nigerian workers and by extension the masses are angry. And the earlier the government steps to nip this, the better for everyone; otherwise, it is a recipe for industrial unrest.
“Government needs to walk the talk. The cabal in NNPC needs to be unbundled because there is no other moral justification. If you continue to do the same thing all the time and you expect that you are going to get a different result, we are far from it. The public outcry about the NNPC, whether it is limited or not, as far as the cabals in that sector remains unshakable, there is no way we can address this situation. The masses are suffering, the workers are suffering, the informal economy is suffering. No light, no fuel.
“The claim that government was saving over a trillion naira monthly from the fuel subsidy money, is that claim really the truth? Can the government truthfully tell us whether they are still paying subsidy or not? Of course, they cannot convince us now because they have already told us that they have removed the subsidy and we have seen the impact on us.”
“As at now, there is nothing in place to cushion the effect, not even the CNG buses they promised. Today NNPC is giving us a story about a logistic problem. What kind of logistic problem are we talking about? If they are bereft of ideas, let them excuse themselves, withdraw the service and let the new people come with ideas to run the petroleum sector and the economy.
“We have not seen the CNG buses; we have been patient for almost one year now. We have not even seen the N35,000 wage award which was stopped in February and we are still having March and April outstanding. Don’t forget the government was recalcitrant until we issued a strike notice. Strike is the only language the government wants to hear but they don’t want to hear anything other than strike and the earlier the government understands that we have been patient enough, the better for them.
“Today the price of bread goes for about N2,000. It was the increase in the price of bread in 1980 that Sudan came to revolution. We must be careful; the country is sitting on a keg of gunpowder. The issue of the fuel situation today in this country has already provoked every Nigerian.
“Why did you deceive us that you have removed fuel subsidy, yet the same cabal in the NNPC are still giving us cock and bull stories? Enough of those stories.”
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