A showdown over the withdrawal of fuel subsidy by the federal government may be in the offing as a meeting held between the government and the organised labour to reach an agreement over the withdrawal on Wednesday, hit a deadlock as no consensus was reached.
This is as fuel price continues to rise following NNPC’s upward adjustment of pump price on Tuesday.
While the state owned oil company adjusted its pump price to an average of 530 per litre, some independent marketers are already selling the product for as much as N700 per litre in a number of states.
The hours-long meeting which held at the Presidential Villa was to, among other things, prevent a labour crisis following the recent increase in petrol pump price occasioned by the discontinuance of petroleum subsidy.
Speaking at the end of the meeting, the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, said, “As far as labour is concerned, we didn’t have a consensus in this meeting.”
He faulted the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited over an official release published hours earlier, reviewing the petrol pump price in its filling stations nationwide.
He said the move puts the labour unions in a difficult position on the negotiation table.
“That’s the principle of negotiation. You don’t put the partner, ask them to negotiate under gunpoint.
“The prayers of the NLC is that we go back to status quo, negotiate, think of alternatives and all the effects and how to manage the effects this action is going to have on the people, if it is an action that must take off.
“The subsidy provision has been made up to the end of June. And before then, conscious people, labour management, government, should be able to think of what will happen at the end of June. You don’t start it before the time,” Ajaero said.
On his part, Dele Alake, who spoke on behalf of the Federal Government said the negotiations are ongoing and the parties will reconvene on a yet-to-be defined date.