The Nigerian Labour Congress has urged the Federal Government to overhaul the petroleum sector and ease the hardship the citizens are facing due to recurring fuel scarcity.
The President, NLC, Ayuba Wabba, stated that the failure of the government to carry out the turnaround maintenance of the refineries had left the country open to manipulation by oil companies, adding that it was possible to revamp the refineries within one year as was done in the Republic of Niger. He also urged the government to intervene and enforce the sale of petroleum products as some marketers were hoarding the products.
“We restate our call for the speedy reactivation of local production of petroleum products as the country will continue to be held hostage by global economic manipulations if we remain tied to the importation of petroleum products, even when we have the resources to produce for local consumption and export.
“While it is regrettable that bad governance, misplaced priorities and corruption have almost killed the petroleum industry; we believe a serious government can revamp the industry within one year. There are examples of countries, especially the neighbouring Republic of Niger, where one of the best refineries was built within a year. Nothing stops this government from doing same,” he said.
“We will not accept a situation where major oil companies operating in Nigeria will have refineries in other countries where they ship our crude for refining and sell what they refined from our crude through importers of petroleum products to our country. Why have they not built their own refineries in Nigeria?” he asked.
