Labour leaders and civil society organisations in the country have advised the Federal Government not to go ahead with its plan to remove subsidy on petroleum products in January 2012.Participants at a round-table meeting on petroleum subsidy organised by the Initiative for Peace and Industrial Harmony, under the chairmanship of a retired Permanent Secretary Ministry of Labour, Dr. Timipre Koripamo-Agary, including representatives of stakeholders on the issue of subsidy, gave the advice in Abuja on Tuesday.The Special Adviser (Labour) to the Presidential Task Force on Power, Mr. Nuhu Saliu, who is a former General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, said the meeting was organised to ensure a peaceful resolution of issues arising from the planned removal of subsidy by the government.Participants included representatives of the NLC, Trade Union Congress, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association, National Council of Women Societies, Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, and National Association of Road Transport Owners, among others.The Chief Economist of the NLC, Dr. Peter Ozo-Esan, said the planned removal of subsidy was not realistic because Nigerians were being made to buy petrol at a higher cost than other members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.Ozo-Esan said that rather than attempting to deregulate the downstream sector of the oil industry and making the citizens to suffer the harsh impact, the major concern should be to deregulate the government to make it functional.He said that Nigerians should be more concerned with how the domestic market could be managed effectively to ensure that the citizens were put in a position to benefit from the crude oil being produced in the country.Ozo-Esan, who called on the Federal government to revisit the far-reaching recommendations in the Mantu Committees report, also demanded the refining of petroleum product in the country to prevent Nigerians from buying oil at OPEC-induced prices in the international market.He said that since it had been accepted by the government that the way the subsidy was being managed was fraught with corruption, it was imperative for it to go after the culprits with a view to bringing them to book.The Director-General, NECA, Mr. Segun Osinowo, called on the Federal Government to ensure effective engagement of all stakeholders on the issue rather than making unilateral pronouncements.He said that it would be difficult for Nigerians to trust the government with the huge amount of money that was to be saved as subsidy fund if it could not engage institutions representing the people on the touchy issue.Osinowo said, Nigeria is the seventh largest producer of crude oil in the world and we cannot refine our products locally. We need to reverse it because it is not helping our economy. Importation of fuel and government subsidy of products is not in the interest of the economy.Any policy that does not include making our refineries work and provide investors to invest money in the sector will not suffice.He said that most of the argument put forward to support the planned subsidy removal was based on savings without considering the implications of the policy on the purchasing power of Nigerians, who would be affected adversely by the policy.He said that the promise of infrastructural development was too general; stressing that government had a responsibility to come up with specific measures to address the social consequences of the policy.In his remarks, the Director, Centre for Democracy and Development, Dr. Jibril Ibrahim, said that the idea of removing oil subsidy in January was not feasible.He said that it was imperative for the government to note that it had no capacity to force through the policy when Nigerians, who were entitled to the benefits and privileges of oil production, were still opposing it.He advised the government to adopt a phased approach to the removal of subsidy, stressing that conscious practical steps were required by the citizenry rather than mere promises.Ibrahim challenged the government to revive the economy by adding value to the natural resources in the country to the benefit of the citizenry.
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