Quadri Olaleye, president of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, speaks to Demola Abimboye and Ben Ogbemudia on the state of Nigeria’s refineries. Excerpts:
Every year, NNPC claims to have spent billions on maintenance. Why maintaining what is dead?
You may be correct, but if you take a look into my presentation during the PMS strike issues, I mentioned that they spent billions of naira over maintaining the refineries that are not working. All the refineries are not working and yet they spent billions of naira maintaining them. However, I have found that there are some costs, whether the refineries are working or not, that the government has to bear. These include the costs for the personnel working at the Nigerian National Petroleum corpora- tion, NNPC; the engineering personnel at- tached to the refineries and others to keep the place on. As a labour leader, my first re- sponsibility is to protect workers. Whether the refineries are working or not our mem- bers are receiving their salaries. So, what we have to do is to go to an advanced level by analysing what is the personnel cost compared to other maintenance costs. At the last negotiation we set up a committee that will look into that. We are expecting the report of that committee.
Why is it so difficult to fix the refineries?
We saw a lot of frustration in NNPC in fixing the refineries; labour has never been involved in all these. But this time around a committee has been set up and we have our representa- tives in it. When they give us details, then we know the next line of action. But our represen- tatives from the oil and gas industry said 50 percent of the maintenance process must be completed before June 2021. We are seriously doing follow up on this arrangement.
The Obasanjo administration privatized the refineries but the Yar`Adua government reversed it. Was that good for the country?
Yes, because the refineries are our national resources that cannot be privatized like that. It is like the Federal Government saying it wants to privatize our international airports. No la- bour leader will accept that. We will not accept selling the refineries because as our national resources, they must be owned by the govern- ment and controlled by the people. So, it was totally wrong for the former president to have sold the refineries. I give kudos to President Umaru Yar`Adua for reversing the sale. Also, I believe the narratives will change now that we are involved because labour will ensure the re- fineries work. You should be aware of govern- ment approval for modular refineries across the country. That will reduce the pressure on the management of NNPC. But that our national heri- tage must be maintained.
There is so much fraud in subsidy claims. What is your own understanding of this monster? Recall that some persons were jailed in the past over multiple claims.
Subsidy in the oil industry is a fraud and every one of us knows. That is why it has become a pop- ular nomenclature between the government and their so-called friends who smile to the banks with the proceeds from the fraudulent business called subsidy. There have been cases when somebody was asked to import PMS, the criminal did not import anything but with collaboration of the government they got approval for payment for bringing in nothing. To me, subsidy is a fraud; there is no subsidiary anywhere. It is just a means of patronising political friends.
Apart from the subsidy fraud, there are many corruption cases in Nigeria that we in the labour have insisted must be properly investigated. We have also asked the Federal Government to do a forensic audit of all the money spent so far on subsidy and maintenance of the refineries. We also asked the National Assembly to be involved in the investigation.
With Nigerians now paying at least N160 per litre of PMS, has subsidy been removed completely? Won`t PMS prices go up again?
Definitely. Because when the subsidy is removed completely, the market will now determine the price. And don`t forget that the exchange rate is playing a major factor here; that will determine the price importers will sell PMS. The Central Bank has a role to play in providing forex to genuine importers and marketers. Fuel price will be going up and down for now due to fluctuations in the exchange rates.
Has labour lost its bite, given the botched strike action of September 28?
The intending strike of Septem- ber 2020 was quite different from what might have happened in the past. But it was not called off; it was only suspended to allow ne- gotiation with the Federal Gov- ernment and its agencies. What it means is that if negotiation fails, we don`t need any other notice to embark on strike.
