FUEL SCARCITY: SUFFERING IMPOSED ON THE MASSES BY RULING ELITE
FUEL SCARCITY: SUFFERING IMPOSED ON THE MASSES BY RULING ELITE
Buhari administration must end this protracted scarcity now!
We of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) condemn in strongest terms the protracted fuel scarcity once again ravaging different parts of the country. We place the blame of this agonizing situation on the shoulders of the Buhari-led Federal Government. It is a big blow to the image of a President who doubles as the Petroleum Minister that ordinary Nigerians cannot find and buy fuel.
To us in the SPN, it is a totally unacceptable situation that average Nigerians for weeks running are battling to get fuel and when they get it at all, it is at very high and exorbitant rates. At the time of writing, fuel is being sold in some filling stations between N120 and N150 per litre and at black market, it could go as high as N200 per litre.
We equally condemn the racket of fuel importers and marketers who have always made it a past-time to subject Nigerians to chronic agony through artificial fuel scarcity as they fill their pockets. We hold that it is the failure of the Buhari regime to deal decisively with this racket that has led to this ignoble situation.
We also condemn the calls making the rounds by some sections of the ruling elite that subsidy on petroleum products must be removed to guarantee availability. We condemn the statement made by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Dr. Ibe Kachikwu in particular that suggests that Nigerians should prepare for fuel price hike in order of guaranteeing fuel availability.
We call on Nigerians to be prepared to resist any attempt to offload the present economic crisis on their backs through fuel price hike under the guise of subsidy removal by the Buhari regime. We call on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to go beyond issuance of press statements and immediately call a one-day warning strike action and mass protests to express the displeasure of the working masses towards perennial fuel scarcity and to send clear warning to the government that Nigerians will stoutly resist every move to increase fuel price hike.
We of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) argue that to break the hold of the Shylock fuel importers and marketers, the oil and gas sector should be placed under the democratic control of the workers and the poor, wherein the collective oil wealth would be harnessed for the basic needs of all. We hold that it is within this democratic paradigm that genuine revival of the refineries including building of additional ones can be achieved. We reject the clamour by Kachikwu and others for the privatization of the public refineries, which will continue the massive exploitation that brings with it scarcity and unaffordable prices of petroleum products.
We call for mobilization for mass actions against the protracted fuel scarcity and any attempt to increase fuel price. We call on Nigerian working masses to join the SPN in building the widest mass resistance against this parlous situation and to build a movement that will to break the profiteers’ grip as part of a struggle for the genuine socialist transformation of Nigeria.