Fuel Scarcity To Hit The Country In The New Year As Oil Workers Threaten Strike

Nigeria may experience nationwide scarcity of petroleum goods immediately after the yuletide if the risk to ground procedures in the oil and gas sector starting from January 1, 2014 is carried out by employees in the industry.
The employees, under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas older employees Association of Nigeria and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers, on Tuesday announced that they would embark on strike from next year if the Federal Government fails to retract designs to privatise the nation’s four refineries.
This was disclosed throughout a tranquil dispute held
at the head office of the Nigerian national Petroleum company in Abuja on Tuesday.

Talking on behalf of the employees, the leader, PENGASSAN, Mr. Babatunde Ogun, said the union had granted the government a one-week ultimatum to stop its design to deal the refineries to private investors.
He said, “If between now and December 24 we don’t hear any thing from the government, we will activate, and between that time and the end of the year we will expect a retraction but if they fail to retract, then rest guaranteed that in the first week of January all oil and gas employees in Nigeria will proceed on a total strike.”
On if the unions had met with the Federal Government before approaching out to make public its risk, he said sequence of affirmations had been signed in the past and stressed that “the government will not be trusted afresh with agreements.”
Ogun added, “Instead of selling our national asset, we should implement the Petroleum Industry Bill for it will give us a direction. The PIB has been in the National Assembly for years waiting to be passed, but up till now nothing meaningful has happened.”

He wondered why the minister of petroleum resources was quick to announce that the privatisation process would be completed before the end of the first quarter of next year while “it had taken the PIB six years to be passed.”
He said the Federal Government and the National Assembly was not serious about passing the bill and alleged that they were “systematically looking at the number of years remaining for President Goodluck Jonathan to complete his tenure and sell our national assets.”
He said, “They come out to tell Nigerians that we cannot work and cannot do business. If Nigerians cannot do anything properly, it means the Presidency and others in the Villa cannot govern Nigeria. So let us go and look for people to govern us.

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