FORMER General Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG Chief Frank Kokori, has said that the subsidy of petroleum products by the federal government ruined the country.
Reacting to the removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government, Kokori said: “Nigeria has no money again. You pay subsidy and only a few individuals are enjoying all the billions of naira.
“They are the cartel and they have properties all over the world, private jets, everything and you are subsidizing fuel for the whole of West Africa, up to Sudan and Central Africa.”
Saying that the N500 per litre was the cheapest pump price in Africa, he noted that “There is no country in Africa that does not sell fuel for up to one dollar per litre. They have killed Nigeria with subsidy. What did we gain from it?
“Nigeria is owing the entire world and we are servicing loans with all the money that we have, so we are broke, we don’t even have money to subsidize fuel; there is no money.
“We all know that Nigeria has been bleeding due to bad government. We are not supposed to be suffering like this; everybody is suffering.”
While holding that Labour did not give the federal enough notice for their planned strike action, he said:
“I was telling the labour movement that they should go back and negotiate immediately because there is nowhere in the world where you give the authorities three days working days notice for a national strike.
“The were supposed to to give at least, 14 days notice and with that the government will call you for negotiation.”
Source: Vanguard
