Nigerians didn’t know implications of subsidy removal — PENGASSAN President

President of PENGASSAN, Comrade Festus Osifo said when President Bola Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy, many Nigerians didn’t know the implications.

Osifo urged the government to cut down the cost of governance, saying “the government can’t continue to ask Nigerians to make sacrifices while they continue to feed fat on the commonwealth.”

He said: “Over the years, the Labour movement has been steadfast about what needs to be done before the government could go into deregulation. Labour established what should be done in the short, medium and long term during the period.

“Labour leaders in the past and present are all in sync on what needs to be done. In the short term, we spoke about palliatives. In the medium term, we talked about the provision of buses for transportation. The government should be able to design a good transport system for the country.

“Some of our members who live in the suburbs come to work on Monday with their clothes and stay in their offices till Friday. These are the realities that we are currently living in as a country.

“Government must be up and down. They have always asked Nigerians to sacrifice, to tighten their belts but the government is always living in affluence. We have told them to reduce the cost of governance. The government cannot continue to live the way it was in the past while asking Nigerians to tighten their belts.

“As an association we must hold the government accountable. The government must reduce the cost of governance because if they don’t reduce the cost of governance you will not have enough funds to channel into the productive areas of the economy. On Monday we talked about the provision of healthcare, infrastructure, education among others but all these cannot be done if we continuously expand government

“We have seen the government of today – appointments are endless. As of Monday, they have appointed nothing less than five or six aides on media alone. We have 48 ministers today and it could get up to 51. These ministers are going to recruit aides. The government’s size is going to bloat. What we should be thinking today is how to shrink governance.”

Meanwhile, the Federal Government said it has accelerated the growth of critical gas infrastructure in order to provide an alternative source of energy to Nigerians.

Chief Executive, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed said this at the ongoing Energy/Labour Summit organised by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in Abuja with the theme: “Petroleum Downstream Deregulation and Gas Utilisation.”

He said the agency has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a local company to supply about 1, 000 Compressed Natural Gas buses for mass transit in the country.

Farouk said the agency has issued a wholesale gas supply license to one of the local companies; all in an effort to provide an alternative source of energy to Nigerians.

He also stated that the agency has commenced the review of new gas supply projects.

Farouk said: “The government also wants to accelerate the growth of critical gas infrastructure and there are a lot of provisions in the PIA that support that. For us in the NMDPRA we have the midstream and downstream gas infrastructure fund, which is there to support high-risk projects in gas infrastructure.

“The government also put in place cost-reflective pricing and therapy mechanisms. This is very important because if the domestic gas market prices are not comparable with the international market, the oil companies will not invest in gas production or gas supply. And it is important that we are guaranteed at least a base price.

“We have also revised and issued the gas prices and tariffs and we are also working on the Nigerian gas network transportation network code. We have also commenced the review of new gas supply projects and only a couple of weeks ago, we issued a wholesale gas supply license to one of the local companies and these are all in an effort to provide an alternative source of energy for our teeming population.

“The autogas and domestic LPG programs are also being implemented for deepening utilisation of gas in a manner that supports the availability of cheaper and cleaner alternative energy sources for Nigerians. These programs have direct linkage to the removal of subsidy on PMS, and the federal government is collaborating with its partners to provide CNG-powered mass transit vehicles.”

Farouk said the subsidy regime created a dilemma for the country such that it was impossible for midstream operators to establish refineries because they were not sure of getting the right prices for the products that they would produce.

The NMDPRA boss said the country was spending N400 billion monthly on subsidy before it was eventually stopped by President Bola Tinubu on May 29.

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