• Insists one-week ultimatum on electricity tariff hike stands
Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has called on the Federal Government to spotlight activities in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and unravel cabals in the petroleum sector.
President of ASCSN, Dr Tommy Okon, said this, yesterday, during the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the association in Lagos, stating that the continued scarcity of petrol and long queues at filling stations was holding the economy back and creating untold hardship on the citizens.
This is just as the labour chief insisted that the one-week ultimatum given by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) on the reversal of the hike on electricity tariff on May Day still stands.
He maintained that the warning remained and that labour remained firm on the ultimatum.
He said organised labour was more concerned because government gave assurances that the Port Harcourt Refinery would begin operations in April and also when Dangote Refinery begins operation, all the challenges on landing cost of petrol to marketers would stop and the issue of subsidy would be a thing of the past.
“But this is May, why are we still going back and forth? This policy somersault, who’s fault? NNPC should come out clean and tell us the truth, are they still paying subsidies? Let it come out from their mouth and let us know rather than speculating.
“If organised labour had protested and stood against the removal of fuel subsidy, they would have said labour has caused it, otherwise there wouldn’t have been long queues at filling stations. Now the government said it is a logistics problem and huge dollars for marketers on landing cost, who is fooling who? Because President Bola Tinubu assured us that if they removed fuel subsidy, there would be interplay of market forces, but now we are even returning to square one,” he said.
On the proposed N615,000 national minimum wage by labour, he affirmed that it was realistic, stating that labour’s demands were very clear.
Okon stressed that those who kicked against it should come out clear and argue against the figure.
“We have set the template, we have done the variables and we have done the submission and that is our position. There are exemptions and I am the chairman of the committee on exemption and when the time comes you will see. What we want is for government to do the needful and remember that by the time we came up with the figure, there was no hike in electricity tariff.”
