The Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Thursday called for the reduction of petrol prices to the levels seen in June 2023.
Speaking at a press briefing in Abuja, TUC National President, Festus Osifo, urged the government to take decisive action by providing foreign exchange to the Dangote Refinery to stabilize prices.
On Wednesday, Nigerians experienced another hike in fuel prices across the country, a move that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has since criticized. In response, Osifo said, “We want the price of the product to go below what it was before; not just reverse to what it was before but to go below.”
He further emphasised that the TUC’s proposed solution, if implemented, “will take us to the price we had as of June last year,” adding that “there is no government in the world that doesn’t intervene in its critical sector.” He urged the Federal Government not to leave the oil sector “to the vagaries and gyration of our naira.”
Osifo highlighted the importance of ensuring the availability, affordability, and accessibility of petrol for all Nigerians, stating that the product is crucial even for households without vehicles.
The TUC also called on the government to issue licenses to all marketers, enabling them to lift petrol from the Dangote Refinery. “We want the Federal Government to, through the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, give all marketers licenses to lift petrol from the Dangote Refinery,” Osifo said.
He also called on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to source refined petrol from other suppliers if the Dangote Refinery cannot meet current demand. “If it is not available, it is a problem. If, for example, the production from Dangote Refinery is less than 15 million litres per day, it is not sufficient.”
The Union leader stressed the need to supplement Dangote’s production until it can meet the nation’s needs: “While efforts are being made to ramp up production from Dangote Refinery, what we are demanding is that we should look for every other means. As we are ramping up production, we should source for that difference and bring it in for a while until Dangote can get to that level where the production is sufficient to get to all nooks and crannies of Nigeria. For us, that is key because it will address the issue of availability,” he stated.
